


Crimson

by Nemi_Almasy



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hate to Love, Love/Hate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-09
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2020-01-07 05:08:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18403745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemi_Almasy/pseuds/Nemi_Almasy
Summary: Reno Sinclair thinks he's hit the jackpot when he manages to capture an eco-terrorist attempting to storm Shinra Headquarters, but she turns out to be much more than he bargained for, with a troubled past of her own. FF7 main story as told from the perspective of Reno, with a healthy splash of canon divergence.





	1. Wasted

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of a fic I wrote many many years ago - with an original character I've been honing and growing attached to for just as long. I really enjoyed how fleshed out the Turks were in Advent Children, which is what originally inspired this. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Of all the scents Gaia had to offer, nothing was more pungent or repugnant than the stench of waste rotting beneath the plate in Midgar. Enough time spent beneath the plate and you got used to it - ‘desensitization’, they called it - but as soon as you got out of the filth and squalor of the slums, it was easy enough to notice the smell the next time you returned. To most of those fortunate to live in the city proper, the smell of the slums was synonymous with poverty and danger, but to Reno Sinclair, it just smelled like home.

For five years now, Reno had lived above the plate in a small, but comfortable apartment in Sector 2, but a few years on the surface couldn’t wash away the truth: he was a slum-dweller, born and bred and the slums were where he felt most at home. Sector 6 Wall Market had always been his homebase, of sorts; it was where he grew up, where he had once known every resident like they were family. Still, he knew his way around the rest of the sectors well enough: a handy skill when espionage was part of his job description.

There was no hiding _who_ he was from most people: the uniform was sleek and stylish, but a dead giveaway that a Turk was in town. Thankfully, his reputation and familiarity with the locals helped him get by just fine; undoubtedly, it was part of why he’d been chosen for the role all those years ago. Yes, Reno Sinclair was good at his job _because_ he’d risen from the muck of the slums, not despite it. He reminded himself of this with every visit back below the plate, savoring the smell that made so many others nauseous.

This particular trip below the plate wasn’t for business, though. It was his first night off in weeks and he planned to use every last minute of his free time enjoying himself: a difficult task with the stiff-necked upper-crust snobs. Rude was the only one he ever had any fun with, and Rude was - for lack of a better term - a fuddy-duddy. He didn’t exactly enjoy - or ‘fall victim to’, as he might put it - the same vices as Reno. They had a good time out at the bars, but smoking, gambling, sleeping around: these things weren’t Rude’s scene.

He was supposed to meet Reno later at a bar in Sector 7, but Reno’s first plan of action was a trip to the Honeybee Inn: a local staple and the site of many a Sector 6 teenager’s first sexual encounter. Reno himself had lost his virginity in the establishment for a paltry hundred gil; it wasn’t exactly an experience he remembered fondly, but the same could be said for much of his life.

Still, he kept returning to the ‘inn’, and found that as his salary increased, he could afford more ‘luxury’ experiences that were far more to his liking. This was how he found himself, on his first night off in weeks, balls deep in a sex worker who moaned his name with feigned exuberance so over the top it almost made him want to stop. _Almost_ , being the operative word. Nobody came to the Honeybee Inn expecting an authentic romantic experience; over enthusiastic performance was preferable to half-hearted grunts.

“Oh, Reno, you’re _so big_. Fuck me harder!”

Reno faltered, hands on the woman’s hips, pelvis flush with her ass. He wiped some sweat from his forehead and sighed. “Hey, uh, look. I appreciate the...added flair, but could you just stop talking for a minute?”

She shrugged and rolled her hips, letting out a few moans with muted enthusiasm. 

_Much better_.

A few thrusts of the hips was all the more it took for Reno to finish once she’d stopped shouting his name like a maniac, and all he could say about the orgasm was that it was more adequate than a night in with his hand. Rude would often wax poetic about how much better sex was when you loved somebody, but Reno had no first-hand experience in the matter. He did think Rude was full of shit: sex was sex and emotions were messy anyhow; he kept that to himself most of the time.

Inevitably, Reno usually felt slightly disgusted with himself after a stint at the inn: a combination of post-coital depression and a comedown to reality. He tipped the worker, cleaned himself up, pulled his suit back on, and left as quickly as possible, as quickly as all the patrons of the inn typically did. He caught the gaze of another man as they were both exiting their respective rooms, but they quickly looked away from each other. It wasn’t exactly shame, but there certainly wasn’t dignity in the act.

Outside the inn, it was back to the decaying filth of Sector 6. There was a line of men waiting for their turn at the inn and Reno brushed past them as quickly as he could manage, past dirt-covered orphans trawling through the streets looking for spare change or discarded food. That had been him once and now all he could manage was a weak grimace at the sight of them. Sometimes he would buy them food, but he wasn’t feeling quite so generous today, and the kids were generally afraid of Shinra workers anyway; he couldn’t really blame them.

As he made his way through the streets, he pulled out his phone and dialed Rude; it tooks several rings before he picked up and, in typical Rude fashion, he failed to say anything once he answered.

“C’mon, man you’ve got to stop doing that. Just say ‘hello?’ like a normal person. I can’t tell if you’re there,” Reno complained.

“The phone stops ringing. That’s how you know I’m here,” Rude answered in his gruff monotone. “What do you want, Reno?”

“We’re still meeting at Seventh Heaven, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, I’m already here. Have been for half an hour. Where are you?”

“Ah, I’m just over in the Wall Market. I’ll be there in like, twenty minutes. Also, I told you we were meeting at nine, why’d you get there so early?”

Rude was always early, which had the effect of highlighting Reno’s own tardiness. How many times had their boss commented on the disparity? Reno had lost count.

“Just thought I’d head down early. I’ve got a beer, you don’t need to worry.”

“Yeah, big guy, I wasn’t worried. Sorry to burst your bubble. And bullshit; you’re there early because you’ve got a big fat crush on the bartender. It’s never gonna happen, man.”

Rude only grunted in response, confirmation enough for Reno. They’d been to Seventh Heaven a few times and the bartender, Tifa, was good at sorting out the riff-raff with her fists. Nothing impressed Rude like a woman who could kick his ass, and Tifa wasn’t exactly rough to look at. It was, however, a widely open secret amongst the slum dwellers that Tifa and the rest of the motley crew that ran the bar were involved with an eco-terrorist group known as AVALANCHE. In turn, Tifa had to be well aware that Rude and Reno were Turks. There was no one in the entire city Rude had less of a chance with.

“All right, well, I’ll see you in a minute then. Try to listen in for any good chatter on the tree-huggers, man. Tseng would shit himself if we got intel on them.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll start discussing their plans right in front of a Turk. Grow up, Reno.”

With that, he hung up. _Living up to his name_.

Reno pocketed his phone and continued his stroll through the slums. Most of Sector 6 was crumbling these days; the upper plate had been partially destroyed several years earlier, demolishing swaths of the slums below and leaving behind rubble that would never be cleared away. 

The space below the plate had never been designed for habitation. The smog from the mako reactors supporting Midgar clouded the sky badly enough as it was; with the plate in place, the sunlight was completely obliterated, leaving only the harsh glow of artificial light to guide the way. People had flocked below the plate to be close to Midgar: the greatest city in all of Gaia, supposedly. Surely, the first settlers below the plate had hoped for a life of opulence only to find themselves rotting and decaying just like the land around them. It wasn’t a place fit for life, Reno was sure of that much, but life still found a way.

Every visit back below the plate was bittersweet. It was a reminder of the life he had once led. He could have easily become just another filthy mongrel living in shit with no money, but he had clawed tooth and nail up to the surface. The slums would always be a part of him, but he would die before he had to live down there again.

Sector 7 was at least a bit more put together than Sector 6, a difference that was stark and noticeable upon crossing the threshold gate between the sectors. A little ramshackle town had been built through much of the sector around the massive pillar that supported the plate above. 

The town contained plenty of shops and restaurants and was famously the homebase for more eco-terrorist groups than just AVALANCHE, though even the Turks hadn’t been able to root out exactly where all of them were hiding. It was a bold move for Turks to patronize a bar in the area, and Reno was honestly surprised they hadn’t been shot at yet; for now, the citizens of the sector settled for death-glares as he waltzed past. He could handle that.

Seventh Heaven was nicer and cleaner than it had any right to be for its location; certainly the nicest bar in the slums. Inside, the tables were full, dim overhead lights casting a warm glow on the patrons and a shimmering gleam on Rude’s big bald head. 

“That shiny head of yours isn’t conspicuous at all.” Reno sidled up to him at the bar in the seat he had saved him.

Rude sipped his beer and shrugged. “Can’t help it.”

“You should invest in some powder or something. I think I could see you from space.”

His friend cast him a withering sidelong look and returned his gaze forward to the woman behind the bar.

Tifa stood with her back to them, pulling glasses from a drying rack, her long jet-black hair falling like a curtain down her back. Reno followed Rude’s gaze, which was directed squarely at the bartender’s perfectly round ass. He couldn’t exactly blame Rude for his crush, though tree-huggers weren’t really his type.

“What’s a guy gotta do to get a drink in this place?” Reno demanded.

Tifa spun around with a glass in hand, picture-perfect saccharine smile plastered on her face. “We charge double for Shinra employees.” 

“Who says I work for Shinra?”

She rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”

“An old-fashioned. Whisky. Sour.” He reached into his pocket and pulled forth a pack of cigarettes, lighting one and pocketing the rest.

“You can’t smoke in here,” Tifa chided, even as she prepared his drink.

“What? Like it’s gonna make it smell? It’s the slums.” He scoffed and took a drag from his cigarette without heeding her warning. He knew full well she could kick his ass if she really wanted to, but he also knew she wouldn’t risk it.

“Could you not be an asshole for five minutes?” Rude muttered.

“It’s a cigarette, not a gas bomb, all right?”

Tifa slammed a glass down on the bar in front of him, the contents spilling slightly over the edge. “Here’s your drink, Turk. Fifty gil. You want to start a tab or not?”

“Don’t give them Shinra fucks a tab.” A booming voice sounded from the corner as a machine gun slammed onto the counter.

The gun in question was grafted in a grotesque fashion to the muscular arm of an equally muscle-bound man, tattooed chest on full display, dark eyes boring holes through Reno and Rude.

Barret Wallace was as well known as Tifa, another likely (i.e. definite) member of AVALANCHE, and the co-owner of Seventh Heaven. He usually wasn’t around whenever Reno and Rude stopped in, and it almost never went well when he was.

“Barret, they’re customers. I’m just trying to make money.” Tifa spoke surprisingly softly with the man.

“Yeah. You’d think you’d want to take money from Shinra. Or are the rumors I’ve heard not true?” Reno asked as he puffed on his cigarette.

Tifa and Barret exchanged a meaningful glance and, after a few tense moments, Barret shoved away from the bar with a disgusted grunt and shuffled up the stairs to what Reno presumed were apartments, possibly even AVALANCHE headquarters.

“Can I ask you something?” Tifa placed one hand on her hip and Reno let his eyes linger for a moment on her breasts.

“What?” Rude answered when Reno didn’t.

“Why do you two even come here? We both know…” She sighed, looked around the bar as though there could be other Shinra employees listening in, then drew slightly closer to them, “We both know who the other is. Why come? Are you scoping us out?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rude emptied his drink and set his glass down on the bar.

Reno nodded. “We’re just here for drinks. Best bar in the slums.”

Tifa scoffed and flexed her fingers, drawing extra attention to the chrome plating extending over the knuckles of her gloves. “If anything happens to one of us because of you two, you won’t like how it ends.”

“That turn you on, Rude? Cause I gotta admit, I’m both scared and aroused.”

“You’re a disgusting pig, Sinclair. I’d rather die,” Tifa spat.

“Oh, you wound me.” Reno clapped his hand to his chest. “I’m going to cry myself to sleep tonight.”

“Just finish your drinks and get out of here.” She cast a furtive glance at the clock as she swept Rude’s glass away without asking if he wanted another.

“You got plans or something?” Reno followed her gaze to the clock.

Instead of answering him, she shuffled away to the other end of the bar to tend to the other customers.

“You’re such an ass, Reno,” Rude grumbled.

“Hey, man, I’m just being me. This is still a good bar, even if these tree-hugging lunatics are running it. I keep thinking we should tell Tseng about it, but then, what’s the point, you know? They’re hardly the worst of the bunch.”

“We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Rude agreed, much to Reno’s surprise.

Despite the argument they’d had with Tifa, and despite her continued and increasingly urgent attention to the clock, Reno and Rude managed to coax her into serving them a few more rounds, undoubtedly due to Rude’s generous tipping. Though it was his job to think critically and assess dangerous situations, Reno didn’t stop to consider that getting them drunk would also keep them off of AVALANCHE’s ass, for whatever it was they had planned that evening. Taking advantage of their inebriation, Tifa charged them slightly more for each round of drinks, which Reno noticed, but was too tipsy to address.

By the time Reno and Rude stumbled from the bar, it was well past midnight and they clung to each other as they attempted a straight line to the train station. They managed to get there eventually, though it took them far longer than it should have considering the short distance between the platform and the bar. Reno let go of Rude to light up a fresh cigarette, dismayed to find he had burned through four of them during their time in the bar. Rude swayed on the spot, blinking languidly.

“You know...you know...you know…” Rude mumbled.

“I know _what_?” Reno barked.

“That Tifa. She’s...man, she’s…” 

“Yeah, I know. She’s hot. Got great tits. I get it, man, I get why you’re into her. She _is_ a little scary though, don’t you think?”

Rude shook his head emphatically. “Beautiful.”

“Well, she wouldn’t fuck you if you were the last man on earth. You think...you think they’re up to somethin’ or what?” Reno belched loudly. Rude’s eyes widened at the noise.

“Yeah they were up to somethin’.” Rude’s words slurred together.

“So if somethin’ happens...we were never here, right?”

“Right.”

Their ignorance agreed upon, they stood for several seconds in comfortable silence. Of course, in Midgar, it was never truly silent; sound drifted all around them as though the city itself were alive. Plenty of other people were out at that hour, filtering in and out of bars, heading to night shift jobs. The distant and constant hum of the mako reactors could be heard from anywhere in the city: a sound Reno found soothing when he tried to sleep, but which anyone from AVALANCHE would say was a constant reminder of the lifeforce Shinra was sucking from the planet.

_What-fucking-ever_. Reno would take a life of luxury run on mako energy over sifting through the dirt for a means of living.

The train rolled into the station noisily at quarter to one and Reno and Rude climbed aboard. The car was relatively full, but the other passengers gave them a wide berth: a reaction Reno was more than used to. He loosened the knot on his tie and winked lazily at a woman seated a few inches away who only curled her lip in disgust and put more distance between them.

“Can’t meet any decent women workin’ this job, man.” He said to Rude as he slumped down into a seat. “Everyone’s afraid of you or wants you dead.” He was vaguely aware his words were slurring together.

“Married to our work.” Rude shrugged.

“Well I’d rather work for Shinra and die alone than live in the slums ever again.” 

Reno closed his eyes, the movement of the train combined with his dizzy inebriation making him slightly nauseous. Pushing back the nausea, he reflected that, all in all, it had been a pretty good night off. He’d gotten laid, he’d gotten drunk, and he’d had a pretty nice view while doing it. Now he could go home, get a long night’s sleep, and show up to work feeling refreshed. Hell, maybe he’d even show up on time for once in his life. Wouldn’t that shock the hell out of Tseng?

Dreaming of the soft comfort of his bed, in his safe and quiet apartment back above the plate, he fell into a light slumber as the train rumbled along the tracks toward its destination, climbing ever upward away from the squalor Reno had pulled himself from.

An enormous booming sound woke him abruptly, shaking the train car enough to make everyone scream and cause a momentary panic that the train might derail. Rude sat up straight and looked around, eyes wide, while Reno tried to get his bearings.

“What the hell was that?”

All around the car, people pulled out their phones to call loved ones or check the news, but no one would be reporting on something so sudden. No one would even know what had happened.

No one, except perhaps Shinra.

Desperately hoping that whatever had just happened was outside of his own purview, Reno pulled his phone from his pocket and stared at it; Rude mirrored him, neither of them saying a word to the other.

As sick and twisted as it was, Reno hoped to god it was an accident at a factory or some other such tragedy, because it would mean it wasn’t something the Turks needed to investigate.

And then his phone rang.

He swallowed a gulp and did his best to sound sober. “Hey boss, what’s up?”

Tseng’s terse voice sounded on the other end. “AVALANCHE destroyed a reactor in sector 1. I need you at headquarters as soon as possible.”

_Fucking treehuggers._


	2. Lapdog

By the time Reno and Rude made it to Shinra headquarters in Sector 0, their drunkenness had subsided into an unpleasant, if not mild, hangover. Two hours spent in the conference room under harsh fluorescent lighting waiting for all of the head honchos to arrive had not eased Reno’s headache in the slightest, though he at least had a cup of lukewarm coffee to sip on. 

So far the only players at the table were the Turks, their portly and obnoxious overseer, Heidegger, and the head of Urban Development, Reeve Tuesti. They were still waiting on Scarlet, Palmer, Hojo, and the President; still trapped in the stifling filtered air with not even one window to look out of. 

Heidegger mopped at his sweaty, meaty face and laughed nervously on repeat. Next to him, Reeve sat palming through information on his phone, a stern expression on his face. Reno would have never said it out loud, but Reeve was the only decent person working for Shinra. He actually had admirable goals for Midgar, and ambitions beyond monetary gain. Reno had no clue what the fuck he was doing working for Shinra.

The room was uncomfortably silent. Tseng sat, still as a statue, staring blankly ahead, lips pressed into a thin line. Whenever Reno so much as cleared his throat, Tseng’s hawkish eyes darted his direction and it was enough to silence him. Tseng was a mystery to Reno, but whatever he had done to earn his rank as head Turk, he obviously deserved the role. 

Next to Tseng, the obnoxious new addition to their upper ranks sat mirroring their boss, hands folded in front of her on the table. Elena was bubbly to a fault and how she had managed to secure a spot amongst them was beyond Reno’s comprehension. In the short amount of time she’d been working with them, all he’d seen of her was a clumsy, over-talkative ditz. Whenever he tried to complain about her to Rude, his friend would only shake his head and say it wasn’t their place to judge. ‘Tseng chose her for a reason’.

_Yeah, cause she’s got tits._

Tseng was a model of professionalism, actually. Whatever he thought of Elena on a personal level, he didn’t let it show, but it didn’t escape anyone’s notice how moon-eyed she got when he spoke; the new recruit was head over heels for their boss and completely unaware of how obvious her feelings were. Surely Tseng knew, didn’t he?

The clock ticked loudly on the far wall. Reno sipped his shitty coffee and mentally begged for death.

Where the hell were the other executives? What the hell was going on? And most importantly, how the hell had AVALANCHE blown up an entire mako reactor? No wonder they were so fucking eager to get him and Rude out of the bar.

Mingling with his annoyance was the continued thought of, ‘Don’t let Tseng find out we were at their bar, don’t let Tseng find out we were at their bar…' He knew Rude wouldn’t say anything, even as obnoxiously honest and decent as he could be; their asses were on the line if they gave away _that_ little tidbit of information.

“Shouldn’t they, uh, be here by now?” Reno finally broke the silence. What he wanted to say was ‘where in the everloving fuck is everyone?’ but he at least had the presence of mind to temper his language in mixed company.

Tseng’s glare was so sharp Reno almost felt it.  “They will arrive on their own time. Until then, patience always requires...some practice.” He steepled his hands together and stared a hole into Reno.

“Sinclair is right,” Reeve said. “They should be here already. Undoubtedly, Scarlet has used the chaos to weasel her way into the President’s office and hold him up with foolish suggestions for retaliation. Hojo won’t show up until he’s physically removed from his lab. Palmer, the great idiot, is probably hovering outside waiting for the others to show up so he doesn’t have to be stuck in this room alone with us.”

Spot on, if Reno had to guess. He tried not throw around the word ‘bitch’ too lightly, but Scarlet was a fucking cunt. There was no doubting how she’d obtained her status as head of weapons development: she was ruthless and uncompromising; she was also unbearable to be around and made it abundantly clear how little she thought of the other departments. Amongst all of the executives, Reeve was undoubtedly her least favorite, but she held no love for the Turks or anyone else under Heidegger’s ‘public safety maintenance’ department.

“So what you’re saying is, she’s going to show up with the president and already have a plan of action and we’re just going to have to deal with it and in the meantime, we’ve wasted two hours in this suffocating room.”

Reeve nodded. “Exactly. I won’t be surprised if her plan involves some sort of equally destructive method of retaliation. She seems hellbent on destroying my city.”

Reeve had poured his heart and soul, his entire career, into maintenance and new development in Midgar. He was loudly and visibly proud of the work he did, and rightly so considering Midgar was the most technologically advanced city on Gaia. He would practically weep anytime the incomplete construction on the sector 6 plate was brought up.

“Let’s not speculate on what they might be up to, gya ha ha.” Heidegger tugged at his beard and laughed his nervous, obnoxious laugh.

“Perhaps it would be best if we all remained silent,” Tseng suggested.

Reeve pursed his lips and returned to staring at his phone. 

Reno couldn’t fathom how much more time passed before the rest of the executives showed up; it may have been ten more minutes or two more hours, though it certainly felt like the latter. All the while, his coffee grew colder and his headache more pronounced. If hell existed, it was that damn conference room.

Finally, mercifully, the doors to the room burst open and the President marched in with Scarlet on his heels like a dog begging for scraps. She was hot, Reno would give her that much, and she knew how to _exemplify her assets_ , but just the sight of her repulsed him so thoroughly that the thought of her anywhere near his dick was enough to make it shrivel up and fall off. She swept into a seat at the head of the table next to the president, who was too focused on lighting a cigar to even address the room.

Hojo filtered in next. He was a slight man, drowning in a lab coat, with wild black hair tied tight against his skull and large orb-like eyes peering out from behind thick glasses. He skulked to a seat next to Reeve, slightly hunched, eyes darting around to glare at each and every occupant of the room. Reeve wore an expression of disgust that mimicked Reno’s own sentiments.

Palmer was last: the corpulent and incompetent head of space development. His face was beet red and he looked embarrassed to be there at all, as well he should have as far as Reno was concerned. He understood that any major attack in the city meant a meeting of all of the department heads, but Palmer’s department was the least pertinent in _any_ situation: practically defunct, with nothing but a series of failures to show for its existence.

“If we’re all here, we should get started,” Scarlet spoke.

The President cleared his throat and she had the good sense not to continue. He took a drag from his cigar, exhaling in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke before he addressed the room.

“First and foremost, I want to know what the hell security was doing that a two-bit eco-terrorist group managed to infiltrate a secure mako reactor, plant a bomb, and get out in time to escape the explosion. What the hell am I paying you to do, Heidegger?”

Heidegger coughed, his face turning red. “Sir, I, I...we have our finest guards on all reactors and several SOLDIER units, I…”

“Quit your stammering, you idiot. We need to rectify this situation. I want increased security on all remaining reactors. In the meantime, Scarlet has a number of suggestions for retaliation against these tree-hugging idiots, we just need time to refine them.”

“Sir, if I could present some of my own ideas,” Reeve interjected. “I’ve been developing a prototype that we could…”

The President waved his hand dismissively. “We can discuss your suggestions when we’re refining Scarlet’s plan, but I’d prefer a direct intervention to some long-haul infiltration. Tseng, I want your men looking into AVALANCHE. Find out who they are, find out where their headquarters are, find out the best ways for us to bring them down.”

Tseng nodded solemnly and said nothing.

Of course, he knew damn well where AVALANCHE was, all of the Turks did. That the President was ignorant to their location was a testament to how good the Turks were at their jobs. Until that night, AVALANCHE had never constituted a real threat, so it didn’t much matter where or who they were. 

What was Tseng going to have them do? Burn the bar down? Didn’t Barret have a kid? Reno was a heartless bastard, but killing kids wasn’t really something he’d like to add to his list of skills.

“We need to root out all of these terrorists. Do you know how much it will cost to replace that reactor?”

“To say nothing of the lives lost in the explosion, I’m sure,” Reeve added.

The president gave him a withering look and puffed out another cloud of cigar smoke. Reeve’s face contorted in disgust, but he said nothing more. Scarlet let out a rude laugh and Heidegger, never one to read the mood of a room, laughed along with her, as if he should. This led to another verbal lashing from the President, which in turn led to Heidegger’s face growing so red he looked like a tomato with a bushy beard.

Reno had a hard time paying attention as the President broke into a diatribe about threats to his success. There were several enraged mentions of terrorist groups, one mention of his brat of a son returning from business in Junon, and the words ‘bomb’ and ‘guns’ thrown around quite a bit. At one point, he brought up the ‘Neo Midgar’ project, which set Hojo to finally talking.

“Yes, Neo Midgar. If we could only get our hands on the specimen again I would be able to…”

“I think perhaps we’re straying from the point.” Reeve shifted in his seat. “This meeting is to address the issues with AVALANCHE. How we’ve managed to get onto the topic of ‘Neo Midgar’.” He rubbed his brow. “We’ve pursued this project before. I just think…”

“If I want your opinion, Mr. Tuesti, I will ask for it specifically,” the President said.

Reno found himself agreeing with Reeve yet again. The fact was, the President had too much money to throw at worthless projects. He knew little of the Neo Midgar project; there had been some experiments years earlier, before he was a Turk, but the project had stalled. Why he would think about resurrecting it right after one of the city’s major power sources had been destroyed was inconceivable.

As if the president had read Reno’s thoughts, he added, “Now is a better time than ever to consider Neo Midgar. A city established in the Promised Land will silence all of my detractors.”

_He’s completely unhinged._

“Yes, yes, and with the progress of my research we could pursue a variety of avenues, if, as I’ve said, we could acquire the specimen again,” Hojo said.

“Tseng, you know about this. You’ve had experience with the project. Make it happen.”

Tseng nodded. “Before, or after we deal with the AVALANCHE problem, sir?” If Reno didn’t know better, he would have thought there was a slight note of sarcasm to Tseng’s voice.

“After, of course. Take care of the terrorists, then take care of the asset.”

“Certainly, sir.”

“Just remember, Tseng. If you don’t take care of the problem, I will.” Scarlet bared her teeth, but Reno wasn’t confident it was a smile she was giving.

“That’s settled then.” The president clapped his hands together. “The Turks will deal with the terrorists. Tuesti, you’ll work with the mayor on a press release. I trust you’ll make sure it reflects well on our organization. Hojo, make some more headway on Neo Midgar. Tseng will get you your asset once the current situation is resolved.”

Without another word, he stood up and left the room, Scarlet following close behind once again and Heidegger scrambling after as well. With a prolonged sigh, Reeve rose to his feet and left to deal with the press release leaving the Turks alone with Hojo and Palmer; Palmer scurried out like a fat bug as soon as the President was out of view.

“You will need to be delicate with the specimen,” Hojo addressed Tseng. “She is...feisty.”

“I’m familiar with her. And I won’t be dealing with her. She knows me, and she’ll be expecting me. Reno, you’ll take care of rounding up Hojo’s specimen, as soon as we address the AVALANCHE issue.”

Reno sat up straight at the mention of his name. “Me? Why me?”

“You’ll have Shinra guards as backup. It’s just one defenseless flower girl from the slums. You’ll be able to handle it. For now, I want you patrolling Sector 4 for AVALANCHE. Rude, you’ll take Sector 8. Elena, you and I will sweep the remaining sectors and set up a post outside the...alleged headquarters in Sector 7.”

“Alleged? We all know it’s their base of operations.” Reno rolled his eyes.

“Yes, and they know that we know,” Tseng replied placidly. “In fact, I had heard rumors of _Turks_ patronizing their bar; an interesting rumor indeed. Never underestimate your enemies, Reno. They aren’t dumb, even if they _did_ blow up an entire mako reactor. They won’t return to their headquarters until things have died down and they’re ready to defend themselves. We only have...vague intel to suggest that the owners of Seventh Heaven are tied to AVALANCHE. What would be better than vague intel? Would anyone like to hazard a guess?”

“Concrete evidence, sir,” Elena chimed in.

“Exactly. So, we’ll plant a bug in their headquarters. Then we’ll be prepared for their next attack before it happens. A long-term solution rather than a quick fix, if you will.” Tseng stood and crossed the room in a few long strides. “Now get to work. And report back on anything suspicious you encounter along the way.”

Reno could be obstinate, but he didn’t wait to be told orders twice from Tseng. A sweep of Sector 6 wouldn’t take much time, and he highly doubted any of the idiots from AVALANCHE would be dumb enough to wander around so close to their home sector.

Just a quick sweep and then maybe he could find a nice cozy bench to nap on. After all, he was running on nothing but fumes and shitty coffee.

* * *

“According to an official report from Mayor Domino and Shinra headquarters, an eco-terrorist group known as AVALANCHE has taken responsibility for the attack. Although uncertain, this may be the same AVALANCHE organization involved in the attack that destroyed the mining town of Corel four years ago. If you’re just tuning in, an attack on the Sector 1 Reactor has left at least twenty people dead and dozens more injured…”

The newsreel played on a television behind a rundown bar in the northeast end of Sector 4. The bartender was a grizzled old man, missing one eye, though he refused to wear an eyepatch and would bark obscenities at anyone who stared too long at the unpleasant empty socket. He gestured to the television with a grimace.

“You believe this shit? Fuckin’ tree huggers with nothing better to do than blow shit up. Ain’t no kind of life, I’m telling you that. I hope Shinra finds the bastards and puts ‘em to the gallows for everyone to see. Fuckin’ no goods, fuckin…eh, look who I’m talking to. You probably sympathize with these bastards, ain’t ya, Ruby?”

On the other side of the otherwise empty bar stood the soul recipient of the bartender’s ire: a young woman in her mid-twenties, who, until the bartender had begun cursing, was watching the news piece with growing rage. Even as the man addressed her, she hadn’t torn her gaze away from the television.

Ruby shifted slightly away from the bar before she replied. “A complicated question, Ray.” She finally met his gaze. “Fundamentally, I get their cause, but...an entire reactor...that’s a lot of blood on their hands too.”

Of course, Ruby was smart and savvy enough to know that Shinra had far more blood on their hands than a group like AVALANCHE. However naively though, she preferred a less violent means of revolution. Considering she ran on the outer edge of the same resistance circles as the members of AVALANCHE, even knew some of them well, she knew that, if nothing else, Barret Wallace would have told her the _only_ way to revolt was through violence. It was a means to an end, but a means she couldn’t stomach.

One of many reasons she wasn’t part of any eco-revolutionary group. Not that they would have invited her to the party even if she’d asked.

“Lot a big words,” Ray grunted. “Way I see it, either you’re with ‘em or you’re against ‘em. I’m against ‘em. Fuck ‘em all.”

“I’d love to sit and talk politics, Ray, but I’m actually here for the money you owe me. I cleared out all the rats from your cellar and put down new traps. _And_ I took care of that loudmouth who broke your jukebox last week. So I think that puts the total at three thousand gil?” Ruby folded her hands against her chest while Ray hemmed and hawed as he always did about paying her.

“If you killed that mook, I don’t want it getting back to me.”

“I didn’t _kill him_. Shiva’s tits, Ray, I just roughed him up to teach him a lesson.”

“Damn odd sense of morality, girl. All right. A deal’s a deal.” The old man withdrew a tattered wallet from his pocket and thumbed through his banknotes to count out the reward. He handed the money forth hesitantly and Ruby snatched it up before he could change his mind.

“Let me know if you’ve got anything else you need me to do. I’m always happy to lend a hand.”

“Yeah, you’ll know when I know. Pain in the ass, but still less trouble than that weasely little Halpico. Go on and get out.” 

He turned his back to her and stretched to change the channel on the television; the last thing Ruby heard as she hurried out of the dimly-lit bar was Ray grumbling that every channel was talking about the same thing.

An entire reactor blown to smithereens was good cause for such a response. She had heard the explosion from her home: a sound so thunderous it had woken her from a dead sleep; it was another three hours before the news reports could provide any solid information. 

There was no doubt as far as she was concerned that AVALANCHE had intentionally taken credit for the explosion, but the truth beyond that was likely lost in Shinra’s dubious press release. They were good at doing whatever it took to make themselves look like the victim. ‘Poor Shinra, look at all the destruction. What did we ever do to deserve this?’ It almost made her sick, if she wasn’t used to it. Twenty-five years of living under the oppressive thumb of Shinra was enough to desensitize anyone.

Outside, the city had not quieted much for the tragedy that had occurred. It was shocking, certainly. The mako reactors were a constantly looming presence in the city, the distant hum as they pulled energy from deep within Gaia the soundtrack to life in Midgar. But life below the plate was endless toil, and people wouldn’t and couldn’t afford to stop everything, even for destruction of this size and scale.

Ruby was no different. Three thousand gil was a good haul, but it wouldn’t last long and running errands for the locals kind enough to take pity on her wasn’t exactly a secure job. She would need to find another source of income if she wanted to make rent _and_ eat that month. 

Her favorite spot to sit and contemplate was a tiny patch of grass generously deemed a ‘park’ by the citizens of the slums, not much more than a bench and a sad dilapidated swing. A nicer, if not equally decrepit park existed in Sector 6, which meant there weren’t usually children swarming the space in Sector 4. Ruby figured she may as well treat herself to a hot lunch and a moment alone on the park bench while she brainstormed her next job and contemplated what AVALANCHE had wrought; after all, when was the last time she’d actually ordered anything from a restaurant? A hot sandwich from Lou’s would be just what she needed.

It didn’t take long to procure the sandwich. It cost her a steep sixty gil, a luxury she rarely allowed herself, but the smell of the meal was so enticing that she held no regrets as she carried it to the opposite end of the sector.

Looking forward to a quiet morning meal alone, she was certainly not expecting the unpleasant surprise of a man in a dark blue suit sprawled out across the only bench in the ‘park’ - _her bench_ \- snoring loudly with his arm draped over his face.

He was a Turk: the uniform was a dead giveaway. Shinra’s filthy little crows could be found skulking around the slums from time to time, but Ruby had never encountered them in her sector before - that's what she got for branching over a few sectors, she supposed. She observed the sleeping man with disgust and contemplated her next course of action while her stomach growled loudly.

The Turk was a lanky thing, all arms and legs with a shock of red hair sticking out from behind a pair of aviator goggles. A stun-rod at his hip was positioned at just the right angle that, if she had wanted to, she could have grabbed it and made off with it. It was a good model and would fetch a decent price, but she didn’t want to press her luck. She’d had run-ins with Turks before and while she didn’t know this one, she valued her life and her freedom too much to risk it on petty theft.

Still, she could get away with something smaller, and she was too hungry and annoyed to restrain herself.

“HEY!” She yelled, reaching a leg up to kick the unsuspecting man in the side.

“ _Oof_.” His eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly for his assailant, hands moving clumsily to the rod at his hip. “What the fuck?”

“Go sleep somewhere else, lapdog. This is my bench.”

The Turk sat up and stared at her. “ _Excuse me_?”

“I didn’t know Shinra was paying you idiots to nap in the slums. I heard AVALANCHE just blew up a mako reactor. Don’t you have anything more important to be doing?” She folded her arms.

“Listen, _babe_.” He pointed his stun rod at her. “You know what assaulting a Turk can get you?”

“Do I look scared? You gonna take me up to the President in a bodybag? Get the fuck off my bench and bother a real criminal.”

Securing his stun rod back at his hip, the Turk turned with exaggeration to look at the back of the bench. “That’s weird. I don’t see a name anywhere on this hunk of warped wood. In fact, I’m pretty sure _all of this shit_ belongs to Shinra. So if you don’t mind, I’m going to keep napping. If you want, you can sit on my lap and finish your lunch.” He gestured widely to his crotch.

_Rich._ Ruby would have kicked his ass under different circumstances, had no doubt that she _could have_ ; the wiry little prick looked like he weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. The obstinate part of her _wanted_ to punch him - he was obviously a slimeball, but that was often the case of any given member of the Turks. The rational part of her, however, realized that punching a Turk was a very stupid idea and a fight over a quiet spot to sit and eat lunch was absolutely not a valid reason for testing the limits of this particular Turk.

She couldn’t help making a threat before she left though, “I catch you here again and I _will_ kick your ass.”

“Big talk.” He rolled his eyes and lay back down on the bench. “I catch your boot in my side again and you’ll wish you’d never been born.”

Defeated, Ruby left the man to sleep, wandering back to her home to hide and keep an eye out for any other Turks. She didn’t need to push her luck with Shinra, but she was willing to bet the reactor explosion meant there’d be plenty of the crows wandering around the slums looking for AVALANCHE.

Whenever the fallout from the incident had blown over and she could guarantee there wouldn’t be so many Shinra officials in the slums, Ruby resolved herself to find the gangly red-headed Turk from the bench and show him what her pistol could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An update! Thanks to anyone reading and especially to anyone who followed me over from FFnet with this story. Ruby has been an OC I've been crafting and reworking for 10 years (this is my second re-write of this fic, the first I've ever been happy with) so I'm very attached to her. Hopefully you're enjoying. I saw the new trailer for the remake and it's got me inspired all over again. More soon!


	3. Nothing but Flowers

If one good thing had come of scoping out the slums for a week, it was the bug Tseng had managed to plant in Seventh Heaven. Not content with taking down one eighth of the city’s entire power source, AVALANCHE was planning to destroy the Sector 5 reactor next. The President was over the moon with the knowledge that he would be able to head off the next attack and catch them in the act, though Scarlet was visibly sour with the praise Tseng received for his efforts.

Now that a course of action had been set to deal with AVALANCHE, Reno was in charge of obtaining Hojo’s ‘asset’ for the Neo Midgar project. Tseng had briefed him on the asset in question: a young woman by the name of Aerith Gainsborough, living in Sector 5, known amongst the locals for selling rare and seemingly impossible flowers grown from the rotting ground below the plate. She had been in Shinra’s possession once before and had escaped, but the President’s fleeting whims and divided attention had meant there wasn’t an immediate cause to recapture her. Now, Hojo was ready for her again.

According to the report Tseng gave Reno, the girl was part Cetra: a dead race of ancients with supposedly magical powers and an ability to locate the legendary ‘promised land’, which was a lot of bullshit spiel for the President hoping to find a bigger hotbed of mako than the one currently flowing beneath Midgar. 

Reno didn’t really care what Aerith’s story was, he just wanted to get her and get out of the slums. A week spent toiling beneath the plate was more than enough to tide him over for the next six months, and the locals had been antagonizing him to no end. He’d gotten so fed up with the blatant vitriol - likely spurred by renewed hope in the so-called revolution after AVALANCHE’s little stunt - that he’d almost reached his breaking point during the last encounter and smacked an old man over the head with his stun-rod. He’d held his temper though, and he was thankful he’d be getting out soon.

The reports on the flower girl led Reno and an entourage of lunkhead Shinra guards to a run-down church at the very southern edge of Sector 5. The wall surrounding the city loomed to one side, and all around the church were rotting buildings that had once been homes. 

The church, however warped and ruined, stood in the path an improbable beam of sunlight that had somehow managed to trickle through layers of smog and gaps in the plate above; it must have been part of the reason the girl was able to grow flowers at all, though Reno still couldn’t fathom the polluted soil below the plate supporting life.

During the trek from the train station in Sector 6 to the far edge of Sector 5, Reno had received word of an explosion at the Sector 5 reactor from Rude. The details were fuzzy, but he seemed at least certain that AVALANCHE had failed in their task; it wasn’t a large enough explosion to take out the reactor, at least, though apparently pieces of the plating directly above the wall had been blown away.

Whether some debris from that explosion had torn a hole in the roof of the church - a hole through which the impossible sunbeam now shone - or whether the hole had been there for years as a result of the decay, Reno couldn’t say, but there was nevertheless a noticeable chunk of the roof missing. 

“Aerith is sweet, but not naive,” Tseng had warned. “Weak, but cunning. Don’t underestimate her or she _will_ find a way to escape.”

It would have been pretty fucking embarrassing if Reno had shown up with three muscle-bound guards to take in one single slum-dweller and managed to fail.

As he and the guards approached the church, the sound of voices drifted from the open doorway and he quickly realized that the flower girl wasn’t alone. A soft-spoken, but distinctly masculine voice issued from within, mingling with the lighter voice of the woman.

“I go in first,” Reno whispered to the guards. “You come in when I give the signal.”

“What’s the signal, boss?”

“First of all, stop calling me boss. Second of all, I’ll just wave my hand like this.” He signaled with a sideways wave. “Don’t clamber in and ruin everything. At least not until I give the order.”

“You got it, boss.”

He hated working with guards and SOLDIERs. They were pure muscle, untrained in the subtle art of espionage: a stark contrast to his own style. It was hard to maintain a low profile with three sword-wielding idiots tramping along behind him as loudly as possible. Would he need them to secure the girl? Maybe, but three seemed like overkill.

Praying the guards listened to his orders, Reno slunk quietly through the doorway and took a seat in one of the rotting wooden pews at the back of the room. Sure enough, Aerith wasn’t alone, though it was hard to notice anyone or anything else in the room at first glance. 

She stood directly in the beam of light shining through the hole in the roof, chestnut hair braided down her back and tied together with a neat pink bow that matched her dress. There wasn’t much of her: a waifish thing, with tiny wrists and dainty fingers, though the metal pole strapped to her back confirmed she wasn’t naive about the environment she lived in. 

She was tending to a man who sat amidst a section of trampled flowers. Reno was never good at telling flowers apart, and he couldn’t have said what kind they were, though they were the most brilliant shades of orange and red he’d ever seen outside of his own mirror. Aerith’s hands were on the man’s face, brushing his erratic blond hair from his forehead as a gentle, nondescript sound of comfort issued from her mouth.

Whoever the guy was, he was clearly dazed, but it still complicated matters. Strapped to his back was a massive buster sword: hardly as easy to deal with as the thin aluminum piece of crap Aerith had. There was no doubt the man could wield the weapon skillfully, if his muscles were any indication of his strength; strength combined with a relatively compact frame meant he was probably quick on his feet too.

Reno observed them for a while, allowing the darkness to keep him hidden, hoping the guards didn’t burst in and ruin it.

“You’re sure nothing’s broken?” The flower girl’s voice was light and soothing, like chimes sounding in the wind.

“I’m fine. I promise. I know it was a long fall, but…” For someone of his obvious strength, the man’s voice was surprisingly soft as well.

“Those eyes,” Aerith said. “Something familiar. I think I understand.”

From his position at the back of the crumbling church, Reno couldn’t see anything but the strange man’s backside, so whatever was revealing about his eyes was lost to him. Whatever was going on read a little cheesy to him, like a meet-cute from a sappy romantic comedy. _Gag._

Had the sword-bearing mystery man fallen through the roof? From where? The only conceivable answer was the upper plate: there were no buildings high enough surrounding the church. A member of AVALANCHE, no doubt, though Reno didn’t recognize him. Hell of a fall to survive.

Three Shinra guards and one Turk against a skinny-little flower girl and a dazed and likely injured revolutionary seemed like OK odds to Reno, though he still would have liked them better without the buster sword in the mix. There was no sense waiting around, at any rate. If he could bring in the idiot from AVALANCHE along with Aerith, that might mean a little praise from Tseng, which was worth its weight in gold when annual reviews came around.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Reno rose slowly to his feet and made his way up the center aisle that led to the bed of flowers planted in the altar. A run of tattered carpet still covered the aisle, though it gave way beneath his feet readily enough. The place would have been better off burned down, but even he had to take pause at the sight of life growing in such a miserable and stifling place. It was a poignant metaphor for slum-dwellers, if you were into that kind of crap.

“Hate to interrupt a romantic moment,” he spoke loudly, “but I’ve got some business to attend to in this church. Maybe you can help me?”

Aerith’s head snapped up to meet Reno’s gaze, a surprising fierceness burning behind her bright green eyes. She was beautiful, undeniably, but way too prim and proper in her little pink dress for Reno’s tastes.

“This is a sacred place,” she said firmly. “Even the Turks should know better.”

It was then that the man with the gigantic sword (compensating, if you asked Reno) turned to face him as well and suddenly Reno understood what Aerith had meant when she’d made a comment about his eyes.

_Blue._ Bright blue. Almost nuclear.

Mako eyes.

The thing about SOLDIERS that always put Reno on edge - apart from their superhuman brute strength, extensive and secretive training, and general total obedience to Shinra - was the unnatural glow in their eyes. 

Was it mutilation, what Shinra did to SOLDIERS? Hard for someone like Reno to say. Mutation, certainly. He was privy to a lot of classified information, but even he knew little about what actually went on during SOLDIER basic training.

Either way, the man with the sword who had fallen all the way from the upper plate and survived with barely a scratch was one hundred percent undeniably a former SOLDIER. _That_ was an entirely different beast than a dazed terrorist. 

He rose to his feet and put one hand on the hilt of his sword, fixing Reno with an intense stare. Reno waved his hand and the guards shuffled in loudly behind him.

“Cloud, let’s go.” Aerith tugged insistently on the man’s arm.

“I’ll take care of this.”

“No, it’s not worth the risk, trust me. I’ll explain everything to you, I promise, but just…” Aerith’s gaze darted from the former SOLDIER she called Cloud to Reno and back again. “I’ve dealt with the Turks before. Trust me, running is a better option.”

“Come _on_ , that’s no fun,” Reno said, drawing his stun-rod from his hip. “They didn’t send me down here to play hide and seek. Put up a fight, soldier-boy. If I can’t take you, these idiots will.” He gestured to the guards behind him.

Cloud pulled his sword from his back and held it in front of him with unsettlingly steady arms. Behind him, Aerith continued to tug at his arm, an increasingly desperate look in her eyes. The look of fear and uncertainty almost gave Reno pause. What exactly had Hojo done to her before? Plenty of his experiments were not what he’d call _ethical_ in any sense, and the last attempts at progress on the Neo Midgar project were long enough in the past that Aerith must have been quite young.

He shook the thought from his head. Humanity was for off-duty hours. It wasn’t his job to consider all of the many and varied ethical violations Shinra was responsible for. They wanted this girl, he would bring her to them. He’d done far worse for the company: killed, tortured; this was nothing.

“Please, Cloud…” One final plea from Aerith.

Reno prepared for a fight, or, more accurately, he prepared to tap out and let the guards take care of the SOLDIER; he knew full-well he couldn’t take on someone like that with nothing but his measly stun-rod and a low-power pistol. The fight never came, though. At Aerith’s last insistence, Cloud sheathed his sword in one swift motion and gripped Aerith’s wrist, dragging her along toward an exit behind the altar.

Chases weren’t Reno’s strong-suit, which was why he typically laid low until he could make a move on any given target. _He_ certainly wasn’t going to capture this particular mark on his own, so he made no rush to go after them, instead turning to the guards with a sigh.

“Well go! Get them, you idiots! And watch the flowers, all right?”

They nearly tripped over each other in their hurry to chase after the flower girl and the SOLDIER, failing to heed his warning about the flowers and flattening several as they ran. Reno rubbed his brow and followed, taking a moment to lean down and pick one of the crimson flowers and tuck it into his breast pocket. He wasn’t much for sentiment, but it sure was a hell of a thing to see a flower growing in the slums.

The back section of the church was nothing but deteriorating stairs and balconies leading up to warped rafters and a possible means of a escape through yet another hole in the roof. The room was probably used for storage, back when the church had been functional, but who knew how many years had passed since then? 

Cloud and Aerith were already on the third tier of the balcony, with three more between them and escape. Reno wouldn’t have risked climbing across that rotting wood if his life depended on it, but it didn’t stop him sending the guards that way. Considering the sheer bulk of their muscles, they would likely send the entire structure crashing down, but if Aerith and Cloud landed on top, it might still be a win.

The guards, to put it lightly, were fucking morons. Strategy was certainly not their key attribute. As Cloud and Aerith wound their way up the room, they pushed down debris and old storage crates into the path of the pursuing Shinra officials. Reno watched the ordeal play out with a growing sense of annoyance as, one by one, the guards fell to their inability to dodge a fucking plank of wood even as it took a good ten seconds for Cloud to push it toward them.

“What the hell are you idiots doing?” Reno barked. 

One of the guards pulled himself from the wreckage of his own incompetence and scurried after the targets. “Sorry, boss. They’re so fast!”

He ran forward, the only one that stood a chance of gaining on the two runaways (who were closing in on the hole in the roof) and promptly put his foot through a rotten plank with a loud _crack_ , the rest of the balcony giving way around him and sending him rolling four floors down where his leg snapped and bent at an odd angle.

Then it was over. Cloud and Aerith darted out the hole in the roof and Reno sped out of the church as fast as his legs would carry him, trying not to let his irritation overpower his rational thought. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the flower girl or the SOLDIER once outside: they had escaped across rooftops quickly and unseen to settle in some nearby district where it would be easier to hide.

Just. Fucking. Great. All Tseng had needed him to do was bring in a defenseless woman with absolutely no martial arts training, no useful materia, no means of fighting back that couldn’t be countered, and he had failed. He couldn’t even _really_ blame the presence of the SOLDIER because there hadn’t even been a fight. He had failed thanks to building code violations and incompetence.

From within the church, he heard the groans of the injured guards, but made no effort to assist them. Instead, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, pacing back and forth as he smoked in an attempt to calm his nerves and think up an explanation for Tseng.

There was no good excuse though, so he may as well just bite the damn bullet. He pulled his phone out and dialed Tseng, waiting impatiently while it rang.

“Reno. What’s your status?”

“Well, uh...interesting story, boss.”

Tseng sighed on the other end. “You failed to obtain the asset.”

“Yeah, but here’s the thing. There was a SOLDIER with her and…”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll take care of that issue myself. Right now we have a more pressing concern. The President wants to move forward with Scarlet’s retaliation plans now that AVALANCHE has escaped a second time. I need you to get back to headquarters right away so we can discuss logistics.”

“You’re not mad?” Reno balked.

“I am nearly always irritated with you, Reno, but we have more important concerns. This is a major project with serious consequences.”

“Damn, what the hell is Scarlet’s plan? Blow up their headquarters?”

“Bigger. Get here as soon as you can. This project is for you and Rude.”

“Yes, sir.” He hung up, still in disbelief that Tseng hadn’t chewed him out for his failure, not that he was complaining.

But what could be bigger than blowing up a civilian building in the middle of the slums? He supposed he would find out soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone reading/enjoying this fic and especially thank you to all who left kudos! More soon!


	4. One-Eighty

As desperate as Reno was to escape the slums and the deluge of anger directed at him from every slum dweller he passed, it was hardly a respite to find himself stuck, yet again, beneath the harsh fluorescent lights of the executive conference room in Shinra Tower. 

This time, at least, all of the executives had arrived save the President himself. Unfortunately, Hojo was more than irate at Reno’s failure to obtain his ‘asset’ and let him know in more unsavory terms. Tseng had been the one to step in and assure Hojo that his concerns would be taken care of, though the scientist asked for Reno’s resignation no less than three separate times.

Once Hojo had been placated, it was only a matter of minutes until the President arrived, already puffing on a cigar, looking absolutely manic, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He moved to his seat at the head of the table and pushed it aside so he could stand, slamming his palms on the table and grinning while the cigar dangled precariously from the edge of his mouth. Next to him, a sickening smile played across Scarlet’s face and, whatever her plan of retaliation was, Reno could only imagine how devastating it might be to the slums.

“We’re going to take out these AVALANCHE bastards once and for all,” the President said. “Scarlet has an ingenious plan guaranteed to deal with the problem, one way or another.”

“And what exactly is that plan?” Reeve asked, lips pressed into a hard line.

The President turned to Scarlet and waited for her to respond. She rose to her feet gracefully and held her hands out as if presenting a prize.

“We’re going to destroy the support pillar under Sector 7. It will effectively collapse the plate on top of the slums. We wait until Tseng’s bug confirms that AVALANCHE is in their headquarters, then the Turks will go in without warning and detonate a bomb at the top of the pillar.” 

Reno’s stomach lurched. Destroy an entire fucking sector to take out a handful of rebels? It seemed insane. How many thousands would die in the process? Murder and torture on a small scale he could handle, it was part of the job, but this was practically class genocide.

“We will, of course, begin a quiet evacuation of the upper plate,” Scarlet added.

“No.” Reeve stood up. “No, this is unacceptable. An insane and delusional overreaction to an exceedingly small problem. Blowing up an entire sector? Absolutely not!”

“Mr. Tuesti, if I want your opinion I will ask for it,” the President barked. “Besides,” he tapped some ash from the end of his cigar, “think of it as job security. I pay you to build and maintain this city. When the plate comes down in Sector 7, you’ll have plenty of work to do.”

Reeve’s face was a mask of rage, though he said nothing more. His knuckles gripped the table so hard they turned pearly white and, after a moment of mounting anger, he pushed back from the table and rose to his feet.

“I have to make plans for the evacuation. Unless you need me for something else?” He paused, his body turned toward the door.

The President waved him off. “Go. This plan involves Heidegger’s team.”

Reeve took his leave, and the table’s attention turned to Heidegger, his face beet red, sweat trickling down his forehead. He withdrew a handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at his face, chuckling in his obnoxious nervous laugh.

“Yes, yes. I have my team on the matter. Isn’t that...er, isn’t that right Tseng?”

Reno wondered yet again how Heidegger oversaw their entire team. Tseng had long been the brains behind the Turks, taking his own directives with little input from Heidegger, though always bowing under the pressure of President Shinra’s orders. 

The two men were perfect opposites seated next to each other: Heidegger’s sweaty red face glistening under the light, slumped slightly backward in his chair while Tseng sat erect, stiller than a statue, not betraying even the smallest sign of nerves despite the gravity of the situation presented to them.

“I’ve already assigned some of our explosives technicians to prepare the bomb. As you can imagine, it requires a great deal of firepower to bring down pillars meant to withstand the elements and hold an entire plate aloft.” Tseng’s eyes flicked almost imperceptibly to Reeve’s empty chair. “The design of the interface is very similar to the maintenance interfaces installed along the rail system - nothing to betray the presence of explosives. Once we can assure all or most of the members of AVALANCHE have returned to the sector, we’ll send Reno in to detonate the bomb. Only he and Rude have access to the detonation codes. If Reno should fail, Rude will be ready on backup.”

So not only was Shinra cutting off their nose to spite their face, but Reno got the grand honor of condemning thousands of innocent people to die, crushed beneath the plate. If it wasn’t so sickening, it would have been a poetic metaphor for Shinra’s oppressive hold on the slums. When he was younger - in his early days of training to be a Turk - Reno might have begged and pleaded to let anyone else take the assignment, but now he knew better than to talk back and risk his standing.

“Do you have any questions, Reno, Rude?” Tseng asked, his voice almost disturbingly steady.

“How are we going in?” Reno steeled himself. “We all know Tuesti’s off making calls to get people out of that sector above and below the plate, so let’s not kid ourselves. AVALANCHE will come because they’ll try to stop us. Going up the access stairwell won’t be an option, and I’ve got a strong feeling your boys on the explosives team are going to wind up smashed to a pulp when someone throws them over the edge. We’ll need a good pilot to bring us in from above and drop us, but they’ll need to get out as quickly to avoid fire from the rebels.”

Scarlet’s twinge of irritation at his competence almost made Reno feel better about what he had to do. Almost.

“Salient points, Reno,” Tseng said. “We already have a helicopter waiting to take you down as soon as I send word. As for the explosives experts...they know the priority. The mission comes first. In the meantime, Elena and I will secure Hojo’s asset. The chaos in sector 7 should allow some leeway in that respect.”

“At least someone with half a brain will be after her this time,” Hojo grumbled.

“Boss,” Reno pivoted toward Tseng. “The flower girl, she had a SOLDIER with her.”

Tseng’s eyes widened just slightly enough for Reno to catch his surprise at this information. “I thought perhaps I had misheard you on the phone. What did they look like? Are you sure it was a SOLDIER?”

“Look, I’d know those mako eyes anywhere okay? He had this big-ass buster sword on his back, spiky blonde hair. He fell from the upper plate, so I’m only assuming he was with AVALANCHE. If you’re going after her, you might pack a little extra heat. This guy was nothing to mess with.”

“I’ll take that into account. Elena,” Tseng turned to her, “Head to the landing port and secure a helicopter for transport below the plate. And make sure your materia is fully stocked.”

Elena, who had thus far remained completely silent, her complete devoted attention trained on Tseng, stood with a start, saluting stupidly.

“Yes, sir!”

She marched off to carry out his orders.

“Wait in the pilot’s lounge until I send word,” Tseng said as he stood up. “Mr. President, we’re prepared to enact the plan, but should you have a change of heart-”

The President shook his head. “You carry out these orders or I’ll have your head on a plate.”

“Wouldn’t that make a lovely trophy for my office?” Scarlet flashed an evil grin.

“As you wish, sir. Then I’ll take my leave and report back when the deed is done.”

“You better come back with my specimen!” Hojo yelled.

For a moment after Tseng had gone, the rest of the executives sat in an uncomfortable silence. Then the President stubbed his cigar out and fixed the table with a stern stare.

“Well what are you all waiting for? Get out of my sight until the plan is finished! I don’t want to hear from anyone except Scarlet until that plate is down and AVALANCHE is crushed to a pulp beneath it!”

Not wishing to spend a moment longer in the company of his detestable superiors, Reno took off, Rude close behind on his heels, though both of them waited to speak until they had reached the elevator.

Reno found his hands were shaking as he pressed the button to take him to the top of Shinra headquarters where the pilot’s lounge was located. Rude watched him, his mouth turning into a frown.

“Crushing a whole fucking plate, man?” Reno asked. “This is insane! No one’s going to tell him this insane?”

“Reeve tried,” Rude offered. As deadpan as Rude typically was, it was plain to see in the crease of his eyebrows and tension of his shoulders that he wasn’t happy with the plan either.

“Why me? Why...why is this on me? Why can’t Tseng do this?” Reno thought he might be sick.

Rude grabbed his shoulders and gave him one rough shake. “Get it together, Reno. This is our job. Reeve will get people out. Better to save some than none, right?”

Hands and limbs trembling, Reno struggled to fish a cigarette from his pocket, and took even longer to light it. He sucked the toxic air into his lungs and exhaled slowly as the elevator doors opened onto the pilot’s lounge.

“Fuck this job, man. I better get a fucking raise for this.”

* * *

There had been an explosion at the Sector 5 reactor, but it hadn’t taken out the entire base the way the attack on the Sector 1 reactor had. Still, from Ruby’s vantage point straddling the edge of Sectors 4 and 5, she could see plumes of smoke rising while Shinra-issue helicopters flew in and out dropping water on the fire to keep it from spreading to the reactor core.

She watched with a sense of ambivalence. On the one hand, one less reactor meant a huge loss for Shinra, both economically and politically, but on the other hand, she maintained that violent destruction wasn’t the answer. This explosion was far smaller than the first, though, and more contained - she doubted many people had been injured, though debris had fallen to the ground below the plate.

The past few days had involved a whirlwind of activity amongst the various rebel factions populating the sectors below the plate. Emboldened by AVALANCHE’s attack on the Sector 1 reactor, fights had ensued on trains and in Shinra buildings, mostly with low-level employees who were just trying to make a living, and had no say in what Shinra did to the planet. Worse still, Shinra wouldn’t care one lick if those employees perished at the hands of the so-called eco-terrorists - they’d find a way to spin it for the news and turn public sentiment against the groups. 

Ruby couldn’t say much in protest though, her non-violent plans of rebellion had all failed fairly spectacularly over the past month, and though she ran on the fringes of the rebel groups, they hardly welcomed her into the fold when it came time to take decisive actions. She was someone they called on for advice on access routes, because she knew the city remarkably well for how short a time she’d lived there - in fact, she was sure AVALANCHE had used her maps to access the Sector 1 reactor core - but all parties involved knew she didn’t have the stomach for more lethal plans.

She had a sense of regret about her inaction, but she couldn’t go back in time to join AVALANCHE on their run through the reactors now, and she’d seen hardly hide nor hair of Barret Wallace or Tifa Lockhart in the hours since the explosion in Sector 5. The members of AVALANCHE were friendly with Ruby, to a degree, but they rightfully didn’t trust many people outside their inner circle considering how many spies Shinra had roaming the slums. Whatever their plans were after the detonation in Sector 5, Ruby wasn’t privy to the information.

As she crossed into the sector, removing her gaze from the smoke rising from the damaged reactor, she caught a glimpse of a familiar face and froze, ducking behind the closest building and pressing herself against the wall. There had been two Turks -  a man and a woman - that she’d nearly crossed paths with. It wasn’t the same Turk she had run into earlier that week in Sector 4, which would have been a blessing if she didn’t personally know the man she’d spotted before she’d ducked for cover.

Unfortunately for her, she had never been the most skilled at espionage, yet another reason she never found a niche amongst the rebels in the slums.

She neither heard nor saw the man move around the other side of the building, but all at once he was beside her, his companion keeping watch with her back turned to them.

“Ruby.” He kept a respectable distance between them, his posture stiff.

Her heart nearly jumped out of her throat at his sudden appearance, and she clutched her hand to her chest as she pressed herself harder against the wall of the building. 

“Ramuh’s beard, Tseng, you scared the shit out of me.”

His eyes scanned her face, but he remained silent for several seconds. “How long have you been back in Midgar?”

It was then that Ruby met his gaze, and found it as stern and powerful as she remembered, though it had been several years since they’d spoken face to face.

“Let’s not play pretend that you didn’t know I was here. You’ve got eyes everywhere and I don’t believe for a second that you weren’t keeping tabs on me semi-regularly while I was gone. Cut the crap.” She folded her arms tightly against her chest. “You want to take me in? Lock me up?”

Tseng shook his head. “I made a promise, I’ve kept it. I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.”

Ruby looked past him to the blonde woman standing guard. “Who’s the little piece?”

Tseng didn’t dignify her question with so much as a glance backward. “She’s one of my employees. Top-rank. Listen, Ruby, you ought to know-”

“I really don’t want to hear anything you have to say, I can almost guarantee it.”

He surprised her when he stepped forward, removing the space between them and gripping her shoulder so tightly that it almost hurt, his eyes ablaze with an emotion she had rarely seen him express.

“The President is planning on bringing down the plate in Sector 7. Reeve has already begun unofficial silent evacuations, but-”

“The plate!?” Ruby yelled. 

Tseng’s eyes narrowed, “Be quiet!”

“He’s bringing down an entire fucking plate? Do you know how many thousands of people will die? Tseng, what the fuck? You’re letting this happen? You-”

“I don’t get a say in these matters. All we can do is try to save as many lives as we can. I’m telling you this so you can help, because I can’t. I have other matters to attend to and I…” He turned his gaze downward in shame. “For once I shirked my responsibility, passed it on to an underling, because I didn’t think I could press that detonator myself. But it’s going to happen. Tell your friends and get them out. I’ll continue to keep my promise.”

Ruby was almost too stunned to formulate a response. Tseng let go of her shoulder and stepped backwards, holding her gaze before he turned and disappeared from view with his companion.

For twenty-five years, both within Midgar and abroad in lands still dominated by Shinra, Ruby had seen first-hand the type of terror and torture the electric power company could inflict upon its hapless citizens, but only once before had she seen anything come close to the atrocity of dropping an entire city sector on top of itself. She had witnessed the destruction of Corel years before - the reason she was acquainted with Barret Wallace, and as she watched the town burn to make way for Shinra’s enterprise she remembered thinking that it was the most evil thing Shinra had ever done.

She should have known they would outdo themselves one day.

Much of Ruby’s life had been spent rebelling against Shinra in her own, often ineffective, ways. That incompetence, her half-in mentality, her inability to shed a little blood: it all ended tonight.

With Tseng’s words echoing in her ears, she turned toward Sector 7. First she would warn as many people as she could, then she’d take the hidden access route at the central city pillar straight up to Shinra headquarters and have a little heart to heart with Mr. President.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all who are reading and enjoying. I know it's a bit of a niche audience, but hopefully some people are liking it! More soon!


	5. Sinner

It only took three hours for the call to come in from Tseng, though Reno was sure the bomb had been ready well before then. The Turks did a lot of questionable things in the name of Shinra, but even they drew the line at such wanton destruction and needless death - Tseng was stalling to allow Reeve time to evacuate those he could, even if it meant AVALANCHE escaping again.

But when the call came, it was with the news that Tifa and the mystery SOLDIER had been spotted passing through the rail station into Sector 7, and that Barret Wallace and his crew were headed for the pillar to take out the Shinra guards stationed there and attempt to defuse the bomb. Reno had a limited window in which to act.

The only way he could justify what he was about to do was by telling himself that Turks didn’t just ‘get fired’. When a Turk outlived his usefulness, he knew too many secrets to return to the job market; most Turks left Shinra in body bags. It was him or Sector 7, and the President had left Reno little choice in the matter.

A young, green-behind-the-ears pilot led him down below the plate, steering around tight corners and through strong updrafts far better than Reno would have guessed he’d be capable of. Reno was a competent pilot himself, and if he hadn’t needed a quick escape route via the helicopter, he would have flown himself down to Sector 7. 

As the helicopter drew closer to the massive support pillar at the center of the sector, the chaos became evident. Reeve’s understandable bleeding heart would undoubtedly save hundreds of lives, but in the interim, bodies were already strewn about the base of the pillar and along the stairwell, both rebels and Shinra alike. Halfway up the stairwell, Reno caught a glint of light reflecting off of the familiar turret grafted to Barret Wallace’s arm, which he was firing wildly upward in the direction of two Shinra guards at the top of the pillar.

“Looks like you’ve got quite a mess to contend with down there,” the pilot noted unhelpfully.

“Just get me in close enough to jump off. And keep your distance from the gunfire! The last thing I need is to lose my only chance of getting out of here in one piece.”

“Yes, sir.”

The pilot edged the helicopter closer and closer to the metal grating surrounding the pillar, until Reno was able to leap out, landing with catlike grace and scurrying over to the detonation interface as a bullet went whizzing past his head.

“I see you, you Turk fuck!” Barret’s voice sounded from far below.

Brushing his hand across a bangle at his wrist, Reno activated his shield materia and set to work activating the interface embedded into the side of the pillar. The two Shinra guards at the top of the stairwell stepped backward and moved to flank him without any command, firing off shots at the rebels steadily ascending the pillar.

“How long has it been like this?” Reno shouted over the cacophony of sounds. 

Gunfire mingled with the steady _chuff chuff chuff_ of the helicopter circling the pillar, occasionally punctuated by a blast of fire or the sound of shattering ice as someone unleashed their materia.

“The fight started below about an hour ago,” the guard closest to Reno explained. “We were stationed up here looking after the explosives expert who set up the bomb, but there were other guards down below. We were told to be prepared for retaliation. The guards below held off the rebels for a long time, but they managed to get past in the last fifteen minutes with some heavy-grade bolt materia. Took down three guards, almost got us all the way up here, even, but Avery had the sense of mind to use shell and-”

“What happened to the explosives expert?”

“We told him to wait for backup, that the Turks would be coming to finish the job, but he’d been told he’d have time to escape before the rebels showed up. He tried to descend and the shock from the electricity sent him flying over the railing. He’s somewhere down there with the rest of the bodies.” The guard shook his head sadly.

Reno grimaced. “This is what happens when you’ve got a power-hungry idiot with no political savvy running things. If we’d had time to prepare or…” He let himself trail off as he stared at the interface, waiting for him to input the detonation code that would bring the plate toppling down on the hapless slum dwellers below.

“The sooner the better, sir, time is-”

The guard was silenced as a bullet sliced through one side of his neck and out the other, a spray of blood erupting in its wake. He crumpled against the metal grating with his mouth and eyes wide open, and the guard on Reno’s other side let out a yelp at the sight of her dead companion.

Not far below them, Reno could hear the sounds of heavy metal boots tramping up the stairwell, drowned out every few seconds by a litany of gunfire. If he didn’t punch the detonation code in now, he’d lose his only chance. Hands trembling, a knot settling deep in the pit of his stomach, he acted against his better judgment and punched in the seven digit code, then slammed his fist on the detonator. The interface flashed and a ten minute countdown began.

Reno turned and lifted his pistol just in time for Barret to arrive at the top of the pillar, flanked closely by Tifa, and the SOLDIER from the church, who was brandishing his utterly massive sword in Reno’s direction.

“I know you,” the SOLDIER said.

“We know him too.” Tifa stepped forward, a fire in her eyes. “I’ve never been naive about what you and the other Turks get up to as part of your job, but this,” for a moment her anger gave way to sadness, but only a flickering moment, as her gaze turned to the bomb surrounding the pillar, “this is too evil, even for Shinra scum like you.”

Reno stepped back from the interface, his pistol trained on Barret, who was the most immediate threat with his enormous gun arm. He didn’t take his gaze away from the man as he spoke to Tifa.

“Let’s not pretend either of us has any control in this situation, babe. We’re just pawns in Shinra’s little game. Excuse me if I’d rather be on the side that’s not at risk of being crushed beneath this thing.” He nodded upward toward the plate. “I’m just doing my fucking job.”

Above them, the helicopter continued its slow circle around the pillar. Reno had no clue how he was going to get back in with three rebels on his heels and only one guard to back him up. Even if Barret didn’t shoot him down, it wouldn’t take much for someone as lithe and powerful as Tifa to pin him while the SOLDIER sliced into him with that buster sword of his.

He didn’t have long to worry about it though, because while Barret kept his hefty arm trained on Reno, the SOLDIER’s fingers were brushing across a piece of materia embedded in a bracer strapped to his forearm. Instantly, Reno’s own hand moved to his bangle, activating a shell in anticipation of a lightning bolt to the chest, but the spell wasn’t meant for him. 

An arc of blinding light shot out of the SOLDIER’s bangle, racing through the sky and landing a direct hit against the spinning blades of the helicopter as it made another sweep past them. The electricity passed through the blades, into the metal body of the machine, stalling its engine entirely and sending it plummeting to the ground below where it crashed into the power grid at the base of the pillar. The ensuing explosion was large enough that Reno felt the heat even from so far away.

Well now he was well and truly fucking screwed. That helicopter had been his only means of escape and even if he managed to win this outnumbered and outpowered battle, there was simply no way he’d be able to fight his way down the stairwell and out of the sector before it collapsed.

_Damned if I do, damned if I don’t._

“What’s the plan, huh?” Reno balked. “I already entered the detonation sequence. There’s no way to reverse it, Scarlet made damn sure of that. What are you going to do? Spend ten minutes fighting me or use the time to escape? Is my life worth all of yours, huh?”

Barret cocked his gun arm. “Won’t take ten minutes to kill you, fucker.”

Reno couldn’t exactly hold their ire against them. What he had done was unconscionable - by far the worst atrocity he’d ever committed as a Turk. But it was done, and irrevocable; killing him wouldn’t change anything and he valued his life too much to go out without a fight.

Pistol steady in one hand, Reno lifted his free hand and spoke into his wrist. “Detonation sequence has been activated. AVALANCHE shot down the escape helicopter. Countdown is at eight twenty-two. Requesting extraction. Repeat: eight minutes and counting.”

Tifa took a step closer and Reno fired a warning shot, narrowly missing her foot. She stopped in her tracks.

“So what now?” Reno asked. “It’ll take some time to shoot through my shields. Time you don’t really have.”

“Fuck this!” Barret fired off a volley of shots, which fell flat against Reno’s shield.

“We need to get out of here,” the SOLDIER said. “I’m not trying to agree with the Turk, but we’ll be no use to anyone if that plate comes down on top of us.”

Tifa clenched and unclenched her fists. Barret continued to strike Reno’s shields with bursts of gunfire that weakened it slowly but surely. Reno backed up, sweat trickling from his forehead, glancing periodically at the timer as it ticked steadily downward. At this distance, it wasn’t even the crumbling plate he’d have to worry about: he’d be caught in the blast from the explosion and die long before the plate came down.

“Inbound from Sector 5,” Tseng’s voice crackled suddenly and unexpectedly over the comm line at Reno’s wrist. “Be ready to jump. I’ve got Hojo’s asset and we can’t afford to lose her to save you.”

“Got it, boss.”

The guard at Reno’s side was firing off poorly-placed shots at Barret, who deflected them easily by lifting his arm to block them before returning the fire tenfold. Behind Barret, Tifa and the SOLDIER paced. Tifa was waiting for the shields to drop so she could rush Reno, but the SOLDIER seemed more anxious to leave, his eyes following the timer as Reno’s did.

Reno managed to land one well-placed shot in Barret’s shoulder, but it didn’t seem to have much effect beyond angering him, in turn leading to an even more rapid rate of gunfire against Reno’s ever-failing shields. He didn’t have the energy to draw from the materia a second time, and the countdown had ticked below the five minute mark now. 

Slowly, he backed further toward the railing, AVALANCHE following him and closing off any chance of escaping to the stairwell. It felt like a century since Tseng had radioed, but it was only a matter of minutes when the merciful sound of a helicopter issued from above.

The Shinra helicopter descended slowly and gracefully, Elena visible behind the controls, Tseng standing at the open side doors with the flower girl bound and gagged in his grip. There were times when Tseng’s calm demeanor and soft-spoken cadence made him seem hardly fit for the role of leader of the Turks, but standing at the edge of the helicopter, eyes ablaze, holding out his prisoner as a threat to her friends below, it was abundantly clear that Tseng deserved his position.

“I’d think twice if I were you,” he bellowed, his attention directed at Barret, whose fingers were moving to strike with his own bolt materia. “You wouldn’t want to send your friend to her death, would you?”

“Don’t!” The SOLDIER stepped forward, pulling Barret’s hand away from the materia embedded into his gun arm. “She’ll die!”

“Goddamn fucking Shinra fucks, swear to the gods I’m gonna beat your ass one day you Turk shits!” Barret hissed.

“Aerith!” Tifa called. “We’ll come for you!”

“Get in the helicopter Reno. _Now._ ” Tseng barked.

Reno didn’t have to be told twice, and in fact his guard companion had already scrambled over the railing and leaped into the chopper. Tseng shoved Aerith back out of sight and held a grip inside the helicopter, leaning out to offer his hand to Reno.

Everything that happened next felt as if it were happening in slow motion. Reno turned his back to AVALANCHE, Barret opened fire on the now nearly depleted shields, the shields gave way as Reno launched himself off the railing toward the helicopter, Tseng caught his arm just as Barret’s bullets caught his leg, lodging into his calf and sending a blinding pain shooting up through his groin and into his head, Tseng pulled him into the helicopter, which sped away as another volley of gunfire ricocheted off of the now closed doors.

Reno fell onto his back, unable to hold back the anguished wail at the pain radiating through his calf. He had been shot twice - nothing fatal by any means, but it didn’t stop it from hurting like hell. His pant-leg was soaked with his blood, and he pulled his trousers off with some difficulty, tossing them aside to examine his injuries more closely. Beside him, the guard looked as if she was going to be sick, and in the opposite corner Aerith the flower girl squirmed and struggled against her bindings.

“You did good, Reno,” Tseng offered, bending down and pulling forth a small kit from his breast pocket. He pulled a pair of tweezers from within and, much to Reno’s chagrin, set about digging the bullets from his leg.

“ _FUCK ME SIDEWAYS!”_ Reno spat. “ _THAT FUCKING HURTS._ ”

“Almost done.”

But he wasn’t, and it felt like another hour before both bullets came to rest, coated in blood, on the floor of the helicopter. The fix was easy though, a quick shot of curative materia numbed the pain and sent his wounds to work stitching themselves back together.

Content, for the moment, Reno leaned back against the wall and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“What we just did, boss…” He glanced out the window as helicopter wound its way above the plate, “I’ve never wanted to disobey orders more than today.”

“I wouldn’t have faulted you if you’d deserted the task,” Tseng said solemnly, “but it would have meant your head on a pike for Scarlet to display to the rest of the Turks. We do what has to be done.”

“This didn’t have to be done,” Reno shook his head. “And now I have to live with the burden of their deaths. It’s not right, I-”

He was cut off by a deafening sound echoing across the city. All of them looked out the window and watched as Sector 7 slowly began to crumble, piece by piece, collapsing in on itself, sending a plume of debris rushing upward and nearly catching the helicopter in its draft. Reno didn’t care for Elena one bit, but he had to at least give her credit for keeping the helicopter steady in those conditions.

“It’s over now,” Tseng said. “There will be no more discussion about this. The President wants us back at headquarters to begin work on the Neo Midgar project.”

Reno said nothing more, but he couldn’t help but continue to stare as Sector 7 continued to fall to pieces, until nothing was left of the place thousands once called home - nothing but a pile of rubble, stained with the blood of the innocent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! More soon!


	6. The Rise and Fall

The explosion that destroyed Sector 7 could be heard across the city, and felt well into the city center, where Ruby found herself climbing through ducting lining the central pillar, ascending upward toward Shinra Headquarters.

She had desperately hoped the blast might never come, that someone would do the right thing in the face of enormous pressure from the President and his top lackeys, but as naive as she could be about a hope for a non-violent means of revolution, Ruby was not naive when it came to the reality of the Shinra Electric Power Company. People fell in line beneath the President’s thumb, or they paid for it with their lives - the Turks were certainly no exception, though she’d never before seen Tseng’s emotions so compromised toward a mission. Maybe he’d simply softened in the eleven years since she’d last had a run-in with him, or maybe the mission was just that despicable.

Either way, it came as no surprise when she felt the blast reverberate through the ducting as she climbed. She stopped for a moment, her arms weak and tired from crawling through the ducting, and her emotions heightened after a frantic run through Sector 7 to warn whoever she could of the impending doom. Many had heeded her warning, but many more had stayed behind to fight. As she fled the sector, she passed the bodies of fallen rebels, people she had considered her friends.

The anger that welled in her chest at the thought of those dead friends was enough to spur her onward. Had AVALANCHE escaped their fate? If they did, there were few options waiting for them in the other sectors once Shinra blasted the propaganda that the rebel group had been responsible for the plate’s destruction. It was bad enough to destroy an entire sector in an attempt to quash one rebel group, but to turn around and steer public sentiment against the rebels in Shinra’s favor - it was such a quintessential Shinra move, and yet that didn’t make the bitter pill any easier to swallow.

Ruby knew that the ducting in the central pillar let out a few hundred yards from the entrance to Shinra headquarters. From there, she had several fake IDs she could use to get past the guards in the lobby and get her at least halfway up the tower. She wasn’t sure how she would make it the rest of the way up to the President’s office at the top of the building, she would just have to improvise. She wasn’t the most skilled or competent rebel in Midgar by a long shot, but she had to have faith in herself, or she was guaranteed to lose. With the line Shinra had crossed that night, there was no more toeing the line. She would succeed or she would get captured, but hiding out and waiting for the storm to pass was no longer an option.

It took nearly an hour of climbing through the ducting before she emerged in the relative safety of an accessway to the side of main courtyard that led into Shinra headquarters. With awnings and well-placed dumpsters to hide her position, Ruby brushed away the dirt and dust from her climb through the ducting, slipped into a nondescript beige pantsuit that had been wadded into her rucksack, and clipped one of her fake IDs to her breast pocket before emerging from hiding and marching up to the entrance like she owned the place.

One of the many reasons Ruby had never done well on discreet missions was that she folded quickly in situations in which she had to wear a disguise or lie in any meaningful manner. As she stepped through the security gate and offered her badge to a guard by the elevators in the lobby of Shinra’s headquarters, she desperately hoped the sweat beading on her face didn’t give her away.

The guard spent several seconds glancing between her ID and her face, pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes before eventually handing her card back with a grunt and allowing her to pass into the elevators.

The night shift at Shinra was less populated than during normal hours of operation, which meant there were few other people in the elevator with Ruby, and most of them stepped off on the employee lounge level. By the time the elevator reached Ruby’s last point of access, the fiftieth floor, she was alone, and able to calm her nerves with a few deep breaths and a pat at her hip to ensure her pistol was still secured beneath her suit jacket.

On the fiftieth floor, she stepped out into a cubicle farm, stretching out across the entire length of the floor, most of the lighting overhead dimmed or shut off. In the distance, she could hear the _clickety clack_ of fingers on a keyboard, but none of the cubicles in her immediate vicinity were occupied, which bought her time to transfer to a second set of elevators on the outer wall that led to the executive levels of the building.

The only problem with these elevators was that her fake ID card would not permit access into the elevator, nor would it permit her to choose a floor if she managed to find a way in. She bypassed this trouble with a skill she’d picked up from years living amongst rebels both in Corel and Midgar: hacking. 

Tech problems were one of the few areas in which Ruby excelled as a contributor to rebel factions. Computers had always come easily to Ruby, and she’d studied plenty of Shinra’s schematics for electronic security precautions before. It was a simple matter of manually accessing the elevator’s circuitry and feeding in a false flag to make the system believe the proper identification had been provided. The only problem was manual access required time, and if one of the employees in the distant cubicles spotted her, it would put a quick end to her work.

She had come this far, though, and she wasn’t going to let the threat of capture deter her. A simple toolkit was hidden within her rucksack, and she used this to pry apart the card reader on the elevator. It took a few nerve-wracking minutes of tinkering with the electronics, during which time every cough or sniffle from the unseen employees in the cubicles caused Ruby to freeze up and wait until silence reigned again before resuming her work. When the elevator doors chirped affirmatively and slid open to allow access to the executive floors, Ruby let out a gentle sigh of relief and slid inside.

Gaining access to the top floor was a similar course of action with the card reader inside the elevator, and once she’d pressed the button for the President’s office, she had to piece the card reader back together lest another employee step in on a floor above and question her presence.

All in all, Ruby was feeling pretty damn pleased with herself. She had done what many rebel groups had tried and failed to do time and time again: she had infiltrated Shinra headquarters and was on a direct course to the President’s office.

She hadn’t given much thought to what would actually happen when she got to the President. She had a few choice words in mind, and she knew the presence of her pistol would be convincing, but the President would have plenty of guards stationed in his office. Would he hear anything she had to say before the guards descended upon her?

The confidence her successful break-in had instilled was rapidly failing as the elevator continued its ascent up the side of Shinra tower. What had she been thinking? Storm Shinra headquarters alone? She could be such a fucking idiot sometimes, constantly deluded by her desire to do better, without any meaningful plan to make it happen. She should have stayed in Sector 7 and fought with the other rebels, should have sought out AVALANCHE and worked together to fix this problem. What could she really do on her own?

_It’s too late for self-doubt. Now or never, Ruby, now or never._

The doors opened and she steeled herself, stepping out without realizing she had not yet reached the top floor. As she moved to exit the elevator several floors too soon, she ran headlong into an employee who was trying to enter the elevator at the same time. 

“Watch where you’re going, you fucking idi-”

Ruby looked up at the man she had run into and realized with horror that it was the Turk from the park in Sector 4, his mane of fiery-red hair still tucked behind a pair of seemingly cosmetic aviator goggles. 

For a moment, the two of them stared at each other, and Ruby found herself silently pleading that he wouldn’t be able to figure out where he knew her from, or that she might somehow miraculously fib her way out of this scenario. She could see the cogs in his brain turning as he stared at her, trying to remember where he’d seen her. Her hand twitched over the edge of her pistol and she pulled it from her holster at nearly the same exact time that the the Turk whipped out his stun baton and pressed it against her neck, his thumb hovering over the activation button.

Ruby’s hands shook, betraying her nerves as she struggled to keep her pistol trained between the Turk’s eyes.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re doing all the way up here, babe? Cause I think last time I saw you, it was down in the slums. My memory’s not exactly what it used to be, but I’m pretty sure about this one. So what’s a slum-dweller doing on an executive floor?”

“I’m not telling you anything.”

The doors slid shut behind the Turk and the elevator continued its ascent toward the top of the tower.

“So, what? You gonna shoot me?” The Turk raised his eyebrows, a smirk playing across his lips. “I don’t think you’ve got the stones. Just look at how your arms are shaking. What exactly was your plan here, babe? Take this elevator all the way to the top and shoot the President between the eyes?”

“No,” Ruby shook her head, her voice trembling. “I just wanted to talk to him.”

The Turk let out a bark of laughter. “That’s rich. First time I’ve heard that one. You ‘just want to talk’.” He looked her up and down and shook his head. “You’re too sloppy to be with AVALANCHE. And too nervous. This is your first big gig, huh?”

“It’s not!” She protested. And it wasn’t, but it was the first time she’d tried to do something so substantial on her own, and she’d forgotten the simple, but age-old adage that there was strength in numbers.

Her thumb moved to cock the gun and in one graceful, fluid motion, the Turk knocked the gun from her hand, shoving it down into his pocket and spinning around to whack her across the back with his still inactive stun baton. The blow was enough to knock the wind out of her and give him the leverage to move behind her, gripping her arms against her sides and pressing the stun baton back against her neck.

“After the day I’ve had, bringing you to my boss better net me a handsome little bonus.”

Ruby said nothing, struggling against his grip until an insistent push of the stun baton against her neck reminded her she was in no position to fight him. The Turk stepped forward and pressed the button for the floor they had just come from, but the elevator continued its ascent before it would return them to the floors below.

“What’s your boss going to want with me?” Ruby tried bargaining. “You said yourself I’m not with AVALANCHE. Just a useless rebel wandering around Shinra. You might just let me go and-”

“Please.” He cut her off. “You know what kind of shit I’d get from my boss if he knew I let a rebel escape. Much less a rebel who managed to make it this far up the tower? Does playing the doe-eyed idiot ever work for you? Cause I don’t buy it, babe.”

“Quit calling me babe,” she hissed.

“Seems to me you’re not in any position to be giving orders.”

Ruby would have rather dealt with Tseng than this asshole any day of the week, and the only thing that kept her from fighting back fully was the knowledge that Tseng might cut her a break when she was presented to him. If she couldn’t get to the President, she might still have a chance of getting out of that tower in one piece, with her freedom intact.

The elevator came to a stop on the sixtieth floor and Ruby and the Turk were greeted to the sight of a Shinra guard sliding along the opening doors and falling, half in and half out of the doorway, tripping the sensor to keep the doors open. The guard was undeniably dead, owing to the fact that his insides were spilling out of him, his chest and abdomen torn open as if by some ghastly beast. Ruby felt the blood drain from her face at the sight of the mangled man, and she backed herself further against the Turk, who in turn had tightened his grip on her and backed himself as far against the glass wall of the elevator as his body would allow.

Almost simultaneously, the two of them seemed to notice the source of the carnage. Several yards away, seemingly unaware of their presence, some sort of headless monstrosity stood with another guard in its grasp, a trail of blood and bodies extending back to the stairwell that led to the floor above.

Never in her life had Ruby seen anything like the creature that stood before them; her brain could hardly process its existence even as it moved in front of her. Its body was almost human, but the skin was mangled and discolored, with odd growths and strange appendages jutting out at odd angles. It seemed surrounded by an aura Ruby couldn’t comprehend, but that filled her with a sense of overwhelming dread. She pressed herself harder against the Turk and she could feel his chest rising and falling rapidly behind her.

“Wh-wh-?” Ruby tried to speak, but the words stuck in her throat.

“ _Quiet_ ,” The Turk hissed against her ear.

The guard struggling against the creature’s supernatural grasp was begging for her life, tears streaming down her face. She turned her head toward the elevator and Ruby saw the sheer terror of the poor woman’s final moments before the creature wrenched her head from her neck as though she were nothing more than a doll, tossing her body to one side and her head to the other, where it slammed against the wall of the elevator, spraying blood across the ceiling and the side of Ruby’s face.

In any other circumstance, Ruby would have let out a terrible shriek at the sight of the dead woman’s head coming to rest on the floor, but the situation was too dire, and the monstrosity hadn’t noticed their presence in the elevator. Hot tears sprang to Ruby’s face as she shook with the effort of keeping silent, her stomach churning, bile rising in her throat.

The Turk let go of her and sprang to action, kicking the head out of the elevator and shoving the other dead guard out of the way of the doors. He slammed his finger on the ‘door close’ button and, after what felt like eons, the doors slid shut, leaving Ruby and the Turk alone in the blood-spattered elevator, both of them wearing the dead guard’s blood on their clothes.

Ruby stumbled against the wall and choked back the urge to be sick, gagging and swallowing several times as her breath came heavy and ragged. The Turk, too, looked pale and unwell, his arms shaking: whatever they had just seen was truly monstrous to strike fear into a Turk.

“Wh-what…?” Ruby attempted to wipe some of the tears clouding her eyes, which only smeared the dead woman’s blood across her cheeks. Her hand came back a muddled red and she stared at it in mounting horror.

“I don’t...I don’t…” The Turk shook his head. “What the fuck was that thing?”

They were both hardly aware that the elevator was making its ascent to the President’s office until the doors slid open to reveal another terrible sight. Across the room, slumped over a desk, the city of Midgar illuminated behind him, the President of the Shinra Electric Power Company lay with a long, shimmering masamune through his back, pinning him to the desk. 

Though the sight was arguably not as upsetting as what had happened a few floors below, Ruby’s knees buckled and she fell to the floor sobbing. What had she gotten herself into? How was this the way the evening had progressed?

The Turk stood for several seconds staring at the President in bewilderment, then he jammed the doors closed and pressed the button for the fifty-fifth floor repeatedly, willing the elevator to move faster. If Ruby had been in a clearer state of mind, she would have told the Turk not to take them back down, because the creature from the sixtieth floor seemed to be making a descent through the tower, but all she could think about in that moment was the way the monster had wrenched the guard’s head from her body with seemingly no effort, and the way the blood pooled around the dead President slumped over his desk.

When the elevator doors opened on the fifty-fifth floor, the Turk grabbed Ruby around the waist and dragged her out into the hallway - and she let him. She had no energy left with which to struggle, and she certainly had no desire to venture through Shinra headquarters alone with an abomination on the loose.

The Turk led them to a steel door, where he punched in a code and scanned his ID card, then dragged her inside and slammed the door shut behind them, ensuring three or four times that it was locked.

They were inside a small break room of sorts, with a couch and television in one corner, and a kitchenette and table in the other. Ruby let the Turk guide her over to the couch, where she sank against the cushion, a numbness sweeping over her.

“Come in, come in,” The Turk spoke into a comm line at his wrist. “There’s some sort of...some sort of _thing_ loose in the building. Tseng? Rude? Elena? Fucking anyone!?”

“Reno.”

Ruby recognized Tseng’s voice breaking in over the line.

“Boss. I just saw some fucked up shit, man. What the fuck is going on?”

“There’s been a breech in Hojo’s lab. The situation is-”

“The President,” Reno the Turk interrupted. “We saw him with a...he had a sword in his back and I swear to God, Tseng that sword looked like-”

“We’re aware of the situation, Reno. Are you in a safe location? Did you manage to find any of the members of AVALANCHE?”

“No. Yes. No. I mean,” he glanced backward at Ruby where she sat, half-listening to his conversation and half attempting not to be sick. “I ran into some rebel on the elevator, but I don’t think she’s with AVALANCHE. We both saw the thing...the...was that seriously from Hojo’s lab? What the fuck is he doing up there, boss?”

“Where are you now, Reno?”

“I’m in the break room. I’m barricading myself in here until you say otherwise. Shiva’s tits, this is turning into the shittiest fucking day of my life.”

“Stay in the break room. Rude had a run-in with some of the members of AVALANCHE on the north-facing elevators. They have Aerith and another asset from Hojo’s lab. My priority right now is containing the assets, including the...creature. Elena and I will take care of the assets, Rude will be arriving at your location shortly. He sustained some injuries and may need some assistance treating them.”

“All right. Okay, I’m staying put.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

The connection was severed and for a moment the only sound was the dull buzz of the fluorescent light overhead. Ruby squeezed her eyes shut, but the images of the gore she’d just witnessed were burned into the back of her eyelids. After several minutes of struggle, she leaned forward and wretched into a trash bin at the side of the couch.

Reno grimaced and said nothing, crossing the room to wash the blood from his hands and face at the sink in the kitchenette. To Ruby’s great surprise, a moment later he sat down next to her on the couch and offered her a washcloth to clean her own face.

“What happens now?” She asked, all of her energy depleted.

“We stay here until I hear from my boss. He’ll decide what do do with you. I can’t let you go, and frankly I don’t want to. After all the shit that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours, I need this win.”

“We just watched a woman get ripped in two and you’re thinking about what I can do for your fucking career?” Ruby growled.

Reno glanced sideways at her, rolled his eyes, and propped his feet up on the coffee table in front of the couch. “You better build up a thicker skin and learn to compartmentalize that trauma, babe. This is still Shinra and I’ve still got a job to do.”

With an agitated huff, Ruby turned away from him and pressed her face against the arm of the couch, willing herself not to cry or be sick again, if only to spite the callous heartless Turk who was now holding her hostage. 

Her fatigue won out over any other emotions quickly enough. She fell into a fitful slumber and in her dreams she recalled a man she had seen once, a long time before, when she was only a child: a man with flowing silver hair, who wielded a shimmering steel masamune.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Ruby and Reno finally meet! Thanks to everyone who has been reading and hello to the handful of people who recently found this fic looking for Reno content after the newest remake trailer dropped (how about that trailer huh???). Hope to have more for you soon!


	7. Away

Years of living in the slums, witnessing crime and death on a regular basis, coupled with years of doing the most unsavory tasks imaginable for Shinra had taught Reno how to neatly compartmentalize all of his trauma into boxes in his mind: stow it away, lock it up, don’t think about it again. It was the only reason he was able to sleep at night, the only way to get through each day without completely and totally desensitizing himself to the emotions and visceral reactions which made him human and kept him grounded.

This was how he dealt with what was quite possibly the single worst day of his life. It had been difficult enough to come to terms with destroying an entire city sector with the push of the button, and to suffer two gunshot wounds during his escape; only hours after he’d returned to headquarters, AVALANCHE had infiltrated the building and he’d been forced to search for them, only to run headlong into a would-be rebel too green to do any damage. Capturing the rebel would have been an upside to the terrible day if it hadn’t ended with a monster in Hojo’s lab tearing guards apart, and a sword in the President’s back that Reno was almost positive belonged to a famed and supposedly dead former SOLDIER.

All in all it had been _a day._

Reno was all too happy to lock himself in the Turk’s executive break room and remain there for the rest of all time if it meant never running into the headless monster that he was currently trying to place in a tidy little box in his mind.

_Easier said than done._

Next to him on the couch in the break room, the rebel he’d captured had fallen into a fitful sleep, her brows knitting and her limbs twitching as she dreamed. Reno observed her with only mild interest - she wasn’t a threat and she certainly wasn’t part of AVALANCHE, which meant his reward for her capture would likely be minimal.

She wasn’t much to look at, either, though she might have looked better cleaned up. In a frumpy pantsuit that was a size too large for her moderate frame, her clothes spattered with blood and her box-dyed red hair pulled back in a too-tight pony-tail she looked about as appealing as a sewer rat, but Reno saw room for potential. Blonde roots had overtaken much of the top of her head, which wasn’t doing her any favors either. Maybe there was a decent figure beneath the oversized suit - he considered this while she slept.

He almost felt sorry for her, really - she obviously wasn’t cut out for the types of situations rebels typically found themselves in, and she’d had a very visceral reaction to the sight of the dead president slumped over his desk. Not that the sight hadn’t felt like a punch to the gut for Reno too, but at the time he was still reeling from the dead bodies on the sixtieth floor, and what happened to the president seemed like child’s play in comparison.

_Compartmentalize, Reno. Lock it away. Forget about it._

There was a scuffing sound at the door and Reno nearly jumped out of his skin, whipping around with his heart beating heavily against his chest until he remembered that Rude was on his way up. Still, he remained tense until the door swung open and his friend stepped in, locking the door behind him and pausing to stare at Reno and the rebel woman with his head cocked slightly to one side.

Rude looked just as worse for the wear as Reno must have: his suit arm and stomach were stained with blood and he moved across the room with difficulty, coming to rest in a chair at the table in the center of the kitchenette and slowly peeling away his jacket and shirt to assess his injuries.

Reno sprang to his feet and crossed the room to his locker, rifling around until he found some curative materia, which he offered up to Rude, who was already digging bullets from his chiseled body with little more than a wince as he did so.

“What the hell happened, man?” Reno asked, slumping into the seat across from him.

Rude glanced up from his task momentarily. “Barret Wallace happened. I had three guards with me, but AVALANCHE blasted out the side of the elevator and a hit from that flower girl’s magic sent one of them flying. We were outnumbered, they had some dog or something from Hojo’s lab with them too. Barret caught me three times before I finally fled. Who knows where they fuck they are now?” He plucked a bullet from his abdomen with a pair of tweezers and dropped it on the table. Reno grimaced. “What happened to _you_?” Rude’s eyes flitted toward the woman sleeping on the couch and back to Reno.

“It was a whole thing...this place is in chaos man.” Reno proceeded to tell Rude all that had happened from arriving at the Sector 7 pillar, to barricading himself in the break room. Rude listened with his typically mute expression.

“Shit,” was his only response.

“So anyway, we’re just waiting on orders from Tseng for now. He’ll figure out what to do with her and then-”

Rude shook his head. “Tseng didn’t radio? He said he might not. I talked to him on the way up and it sounded like he and Elena were really in the thick of it. Headquarters is in complete chaos with the President dead and Rufus just arrived maybe at the same time the President was being assassinated, within the last few hours anyway. They’re putting out fires and managing the exchange of power.”

“Rufus is here?” Reno curled his lip. 

There were few people Reno disliked more than Scarlet, and Rufus Shinra was one of them. Unlike his father - who was a raging lunatic at most times, but also completely politically incompetent - Rufus was a ruthless and shrewd politician, excellent at cozying up with all the right people, ruling in his father’s stead with an iron fist - he left no leeway for resistance in the ranks and the only thing that kept him reigned in was his father’s continued existence and the knowledge that he could easily be written out of the will with one wrong move.

Now he was officially president of the world’s largest and most powerful company.

Worse yet, _now he was Reno’s boss._

“AVALANCHE were heading for the perimeter wall according to highway camera footage,” Rude continued, ignoring Reno’s look of disgust. “Tseng asked us to investigate and to use a company car to follow the trail out of the city if necessary.”

“And what about her?” Reno gestured widely to the rebel asleep on the couch.

“I guess we bring her with us.”

“I’m not toting around a prisoner while we try to hunt down the _actual_ terrorists. That’s ridiculous,” Reno protested. “I’m calling the boss.” He tapped on his comm line. “Tseng? Hey boss? Boss?”

Several seconds of silence followed before Tseng’s voice sounded on the other end.

“I am exceedingly busy, Reno.”

“Rude says you want us to follow AVALANCHE out of the city.”

“Yes. And?”

“Well what am I supposed to do with this hostage I’ve got? I’m not taking her with us. Should I lock her up in the cells on the-”

“The holding cells at headquarters are compromised after AVALANCHE’s escape and given the current...circumstances. The plan is to contain the issue, instate the new president, and reconvene for a formal meeting in Junon at which time there will be a parade in honor of our new leader,” Tseng said this last part with just the slightest hint of irritation that only someone who had worked under him as long as Reno had would be able to detect.

“There’s some headless monster on the loose and Sephiroth might still be alive and we’re throwing a parade for that-”

“I would encourage you to temper your tone, Reno, as the new president is currently in the office with me investigating the death of his father,” Tseng interrupted. “A single sword is hardly conclusive evidence as to the involvement of Sephiroth. You can leave that aspect of the investigation to me. Reno, this rebel you’ve captured, did you get her name?”

“No,” Reno shrugged. “We were a little busy outrunning a _headless monster_ , _sir._ ”

“Take her with you. Track AVALANCHE through the eastern wilds and capture them if possible. You can present any of the terrorists you manage to bring in to the panel in Junon and the president will render his judgment there. Our conversation ends here, Reno, I have work to attend to.”

The line went dead.

“Can you believe this shit?” Reno turned his attention to Rude. 

“We have jobs to do, Reno. If headquarters is compromised, then it makes sense to take the hostage with us.”

“Yeah but in a Shinra-issue car? Why not a helicopter?”

“Because I highly doubt the well-armed fugitives in AVALANCHE are gonna be running out in the open where we can spot them from a helicopter.” Rude rolled his eyes. He applied the cure materia to his wounds and handed it back to Reno, crossing to his locker and pulling forth a clean shirt. “We better go. The longer we wait, the more likely we’ll lose the trail.”

“Yeah, yeah. This is bullshit,” Reno grumbled, gathering the contents of his locker into a bag, switching out a few materia on his bangle, and slinging the bag over his shoulder. “What do you think we should do about her? It’s not like she’s gonna come willingly.”

Rude leaned into Reno’s still open locker and procured a set of handcuffs, dangling them from the end of his finger. He said nothing, only raised his eyebrows and tossed the cuffs to Reno.

“I could think of better women to be chained to,” Reno remarked. “But it’s not a terrible plan.”

“No chance of escape with those on. Unless you want to be the one to explain to Tseng why we lost her when she inevitably takes the opportunity.”

Reno knew Rude was right, and the handcuffs were a simple mechanical solution. He pocketed the key before latching one end of the cuffs to his left wrist and crossing the room to where the rebel still slept against the couch.

She awoke as soon as Reno grabbed her arm, but didn’t stir fast enough to avoid him as he clamped the other side of the handcuffs around her right wrist. She blinked at him languidly, her eyes following the chain to his arm and up to meet his gaze.

“What the hell is going on?” She demanded.

“We’re leaving. Headquarters is being turned over to a new president now and the Turks have work to do. Unfortunately that means you’re coming with us for the time being.”

He yanked her up off of the couch and she stumbled along after him. “What? You’re not going to turn me over to your boss or...put me in a cell or something?”

“Not an option.” Reno wiggled the arm that was cuffed to hers. “Now you can either keep up with me or I can drag you all the way down to the garage.”

However incompetent - or maybe just frightened - she had been back in the elevator, there was no doubting the woman wasn’t stupid. She grabbed her rucksack from the floor by the couch and tossed it over her shoulder, following him to the door, though he didn’t miss her eyes straying to where her pistol had been in his pocket.

“Don’t bother looking for it, it’s mine now.”

“I’ll take it back eventually,” she assured him.

“You got a name?” Rude asked as he opened the door and the three of them stepped out into the hallway.

“Ruby.” Her reply was terse, but not laced with any anger. “Who are you?”

“I’m Rude. You've met Reno. Nice to meet you, Ruby.”

“‘Nice to meet you’?” Reno balked. “What? Don’t make friends with the hostage, man. That’s no way for a Turk to behave.”

“It’s a five day drive through the eastern pass and the mythril caves to get to Junon. And that’s assuming we _don’t_ run into AVALANCHE and extend our trip.” Rude shrugged. “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”

“Didn’t know Turks could be polite,” Ruby said, sucking her teeth as she cast a pointed look at Reno. “You learn something new every day.”

“Hey, I saved your ass from that big headless _thing_ running around downstairs, so-”

“So they’ve already put the president’s son in charge? The body’s not even cold yet,” Ruby interrupted Reno before he could finish his tirade. 

It seemed that after a short rest and some time away from the carnage they’d witnessed earlier she was in fine form, without a hint of fear in her eyes as she spoke. As a slum-dweller, she’d obviously had run-ins with Turks before, and she also clearly held a low opinion of them, but most civilians, even those who would openly taunt and attack Turks down in the slums, cowered in fear once they were in the Turks’ territory. Why wasn’t she more afraid of them?

“I’m sorry, who died and made you an executive?” Reno asked. “It’s none of your damn business what’s happening with the president, and if you don’t watch your tone, you’ll learn a little something about just where the Turks get their reputation.”

She pursed her lips and stared at him, clearly unimpressed. “What are you gonna do to me, _Reno_? Cut off my toes? Bend my fingers back until they snap? Dunk me in water until it feels like I’m going to drown? Let me know when I’m getting warmer.”

At this, Rude chuckled, completely ruining the intimidation game Reno had been trying to play. He glared at his companion and yanked Ruby after him into one of the north-facing elevators. As Rude had said, the glass in the elevator adjacent to them had been completely blown out and was now shut off from access.

From this vantage point, the full scope of what Reno had done earlier could be seen in all its sickening destruction. Directly ahead of them, a glow of twinkling lights from the surrounding sectors encircling it like a halo, Sector 7 lay in ruin. How many were dead? And where would the displaced even go?

He forced the thought back into its box inside his brain.

Rude sighed at the sight of it. “That’s a hell of a thing we did today.”

“You did that?” Ruby couldn’t tear her gaze away from the collapsed plate, a profound sadness playing across her face.

“I did,” Reno said, and unlike every other horrendous deed he’d done for Shinra and later justified, he couldn’t find a way to justify this action, nor did he want to gloat about it to the devastated rebel beside him.

“Did you have a choice?”

“What do you think?” Reno growled.

Ruby shook her head. “Senseless. Things are going to get ten times worse with Rufus Shinra in power.”

Reno had to agree. He knew public sentiment for Rufus wasn’t high either, even in the sectors with the strongest Shinra leanings. His father, in all his oafishness, had been a sometimes sympathetic figure to the people, but Rufus ruled through fear - his interest lay in courting favor with the wealthy elite, which left no time or necessity to pander to the everyman. Reno’s job was going to get a hell of a lot harder with Rufus in charge, and if the public didn’t buy the spiel that AVALANCHE had caused the destruction of Sector 7, even more terrorist groups were going to start popping up soon.

“You might want to change your tune about Rufus,” Reno said. “Because when we get you to Junon, it sounds like he’s going to have the final say on what to do with you. Doesn’t matter if you’re with AVALANCHE or not. All he has to do is tell the public you were, and that you were the one who destroyed the plate. Pretty soon the entire city will be demanding your head.”

Ruby’s expression was unreadable, but again, Reno certainly didn’t see fear in her eyes. She simply shrugged and lifted the arm that was attached to Reno’s. 

“Not much to be done about it now.”

The elevator descended all the way to bottom of the building, opening onto an underground garage with an access tunnel that led in and out of the city. Most of the vehicles in the garage were Shinra-issue - the majority of Shinra’s employees lived in Midgar and took public transport to and from work. Reno stopped in front of several sleek sports cars which were often utilized by the top executives during their business travels, but Rude only grunted and weaved past them through the rows and rows of vehicles, looking for something more practical.

“C’mon, man, this one’s a convertible! We never get to take the cool cars!”

“What are you gonna do? Sit in the back with her while I drive?”

Reno knew he had a point, but he still took his time walking away from the sports cars, casting a longing glance back at them before rejoining Rude.

“So you’re going after AVALANCHE?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“How do you plan on finding them? And if you do, how are you going to fight them? You’re outnumbered and Barret Wallace has a gun for an arm.”

“Oh, so you’re familiar with them, huh?”

“We run in similar circles. I’m friendly with them, but I don’t know their plans, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“I’m not getting at anything. Except that maybe we can use you as bait to lure them out when we _do_ find them.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and folded her arms, which cause Reno’s hand to jerk with hers and smack her in the chest. She quickly dropped her arms, a flush creeping to her cheeks that made Reno smirk.

Rude came to a halt in front of an ancient pickup truck with the Shinra logo painted on the side. It was used for off-road exploits in the mountains, usually gathering resources for construction - certainly not Reno’s first choice of vehicle.

“This old thing?” Reno kicked the tires unsurely.

“AVALANCHE isn’t going to be sticking to the roads. We need a vehicle that can handle different types of terrain.” He opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat, where the keys were waiting in the ignition. “Fits three people cozy in the cab. Get in.”

With a sigh, Reno dragged Ruby around to the other side, shoving her in to the middle seat and clambering in after her. He tossed his bag through a window behind them into the bed of the truck and Ruby winced.

“My pistol better not be in there!”

“I told you already, it’s mine now. I’d worry more about what Rufus Shinra is going to do to you when we get to Junon than whether or not I’m scuffing up your shitty old pistol.”

Rude guided the truck through the garage and into the access tunnel. “You two gonna argue the entire trip?” He asked.

“I’m not exactly seeing any incentive to be a cooperative hostage,” Ruby said. “Because you’ve basically told me that when we get to Junon I’m probably going to be executed for something _you_ did. So if that’s the case, I may as well make this trip as miserable as possible, at least for him.” She jammed her elbow into Reno’s side and he let out a yelp, more of surprise than pain. “ _Oops._ ” She turned back to Rude. “You’ve been fine...so far. But you’re still a Turk.”

“I might take you up on that suggestion to snap your fingers,” Reno hissed.

“Do it then.” She held her hand out, unwavering.

“Ho, where was this confidence back in the elevator, Rubes? Can I call you Rubes?” 

“Better than ‘babe’.” She shrugged and withdrew her hand.

“You were all nerves when I ran into you on the elevator and now you’re acting like you’re queen of the castle. Why the sudden change? Is it that you like being tied up?” He jangled their attached wrists. “Hm? Or are you trying to psych me out?”

“I just know inevitability when I see it,” she said. “I’m not going to magically escape these handcuffs, so I may as well come to terms with the situation.”

Reno didn’t buy it, but he didn’t have a better explanation. Maybe whatever conversation she’d been planning to have with the President when he intercepted her had been the source of her nerves. Maybe now, removed from immediate danger at the hands of Hojo’s monster, and with her plan foiled, she wasn't nervous. She _certainly_ wasn’t afraid.

“Yeah, well. Why don’t you keep quiet for a bit? I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours, and I don’t need your yammering when I’ve got a chance for reprieve.” He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes as the weight of the day finally fully caught up to him.

Then Ruby opened her mouth and began to yell, purely to spite him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and thanks to those who migrated over from FFNet to follow this re-write. Hope everyone is enjoying it. Happy Friday and more soon!


	8. The Timeless Art of Seduction

Ruby was, to say the least, unhappy about the predicament in which she found herself. When the Turk had accosted her on the elevator, she had been immediately distracted by the horror that subsequently unfolded, but once they got to safety, she had assumed he would eventually hand her over to Tseng, who would keep a promise he made long ago and let her free without incident. 

Unfortunately, the entire Shinra order was in chaos after the President’s death, and Tseng hadn’t even seen her. Now she found herself wedged between two Turks - one who was tolerable and one who she was growing more annoyed with by the minute - traveling off-road through the eastern wilds toward a small town about a hundred miles east of the city known as Kalm.

They had picked up signs that AVALANCHE might be headed that way, mostly in a path of bullets amongst the trees ten miles outside the city that had likely been left behind by Barret, though it was also likely, considering Kalm was the only major settlement before the land truly gave way to the wilds for the next hundred or so miles. They had left Midgar in a hurry and it was likely they would need to stop in and resupply, but whether or not the Turks would catch them in time was another matter entirely. 

Ruby had been relieved to hear AVALANCHE had survived the destruction of Sector 7, so she said a silent prayer that the Turks would arrive to Kalm too late, at which point they would undoubtedly lose the trail.

It was well past midnight, and Ruby’s twenty-minute power nap had been a restless one. Seated in the truck, headlights bouncing as it moved over the rough off-road terrain, Ruby found the rocking motion lulling her to sleep, her eyelids growing too heavy to fight. Nearly as soon as she closed her eyes, Reno’s voice was loud against her ear.

“ _Stay awake, Rubes!”_

Her eyes snapped open and she glared at him. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t deserve it - for the past twenty minutes she’d been trying to keep him awake just to annoy him and now he was returning the favor in kind. It didn’t stop her feeling indignant about it.

“Don’t you think we would have passed them by now?” Ruby asked. “Wouldn’t they be traveling by foot?”

“We don’t know for sure. Several vehicles were missing from the garage - taken during the chaos. Any one of them could have been taken by AVALANCHE. And if they are going by foot, then chances are they’ll have to stop in Kalm either way. We can head them off,” Rude explained.

Apart from being a Turk, Rude seemed all right to Ruby. There was something about his demeanor that made him seem trustworthy, which was certainly an oxymoron when paired with his profession. Still, he set her at ease, even though she could plainly see from his muscular build and his stern, emotionless face how he might excel in his position. Reno, on the other hand, was an obnoxious loud-mouth and she could have pegged him for exactly what he was from a mile away.

As if to prove her point, Reno looked her up and down and said, “First order of business when we reach Kalm is getting you into something less _frumpy_.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry my outfit isn’t sexy enough for you,” Ruby shot back. “I live my life to please men like you.”

“Fine, run around in blood-stained clothes. See if I care.”

“I’ve got a change of clothes in my rucksack. But you’re going to have to uncuff me to let me change.” She wasn’t actually naive enough to think they’d leave her alone for even a minute to risk escape, but a girl could dream.

“Sure, but you’ll have to do it in front of me.” A smirk played across Reno’s face.

“You have anything protective in that bag of yours?” Rude asked, breezing past Reno’s comment. “We’ll have to go south through the swamp and there’s all sorts of mako-fueled nightmares making their home there. You’re going to need something more than what you’ve got right now.”

“Reno took all of my materia and my only weapon. I’m not in the habit of walking around in full armor - it gets cumbersome.”

“When we get to Kalm we’ll sort out the defensive materia.” Reno was about to protest when Rude cut him off. “She can’t do anything to us with some cure and shell materia...except help us. Better than that nothing.”

“Fine,” Reno grumbled. “But _only_ defensive materia.”

For a while, the three of them fell silent - the only sound coming from the rhythmic thumping of the truck’s tires against the uneven earth beneath them. Occasionally, through gaps in the trees, there was a glimpse of the horizon, the sun just beginning to peak out across the curve of the plain. It had been a long time since Ruby had seen a sunrise - the smog surrounding Midgar blotted out the sun even on the upper plate - but the trees were too dense to really catch the full beauty of it as the sun crept further upward.

“I’m dragging,” Reno said. “We should sleep in shifts when we get to Kalm.”

Rude glanced sideways at Ruby. “I don’t know that she’s gonna let you sleep, pal.”

But Ruby was struggling to keep her eyes open, crashing from the evening’s earlier adrenaline rush, and running on as little sleep as the Turks likely were. She snapped to attention and tried to blink away the fatigue.

“How much longer until we get there?”

Rude shrugged. “Another half hour?”

Try as she might, Ruby couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer as the truck continued along its route to Kalm. After another ten minutes, she lost the fight, her heavy eyelids sliding shut as she drifted to sleep.

 

When Ruby awoke, she found herself lying on her side next to Reno on a bed, their cuffed hands lying in the space between them. Reno lay on his back snoring softly, still in his blood-spattered suit. The curtains had been drawn on the only window in the room, but a bit of sunlight still leaked through the fabric, casting a muted glow that made the air feel heavier. The overpowering scent of sandalwood filled the room.

Ruby had no clue how long she had been asleep - she didn’t even remember leaving the truck. Had she awoken long enough to enter this building or had the Turks carried her in? A quick glance around the room told her she was alone with Reno. Rude was likely hiding out elsewhere in the town, trying to root out where AVALANCHE was headed. If ever there was an opportunity for Ruby to free herself and flee, it was then.

As carefully as she could manage, Ruby moved her free arm toward Reno, sucking in her breath and holding it lest any noise wake him from his slumber. She gently pushed his suit jacket back to reveal the pocket where she suspected he had hidden the key to the handcuffs that bound them together. Pausing with her fingers at the edge of the pocket, she glanced at his face, almost peaceful in that moment, assuring herself he was still sleeping soundly.

_Now or never, Ruby, make a move._

She slid her hand into his pocket and felt for the key, but the pockets were deeper than she’d anticipated. She had expected - or perhaps simply hoped - that as soon as she stuck her hand in the pocket she would feel the cool metal of the key and immediately pull it out. Instead, she was forced to dig her hand deeper into the pocket until, at the very point of the fabric, her fingers brushed against the key’s jagged edges. She grasped it in her hand and immediately felt the tight grasp of fingers encircling her wrist.

“Looking for something?” Reno’s eyes had snapped open and he was wearing a cruel grin. “Or were you just trying to get friendly? I’m not opposed if you aren’t, but we better make it quick.” 

His hand tightened on her wrist until it was almost painful, forcing her to release her hold on the key. He yanked her arm away from his pocket and fished the key out, setting it aside on the end-table next to the bed.

“You’re a pig,” she hissed, attempting to turn her back to him, but unable due to the way their arms were joined.

“Yeah, well, you’re stuck with me. And if you try that shit again I’ll break your wrist.”

“You don’t scare me,” she said honestly.

She wasn’t particularly worried about what would happen to her in Junon. She was almost positive they would have to present her to Tseng before she ever had to face Rufus, and if Tseng kept his word, she would find her freedom there, at which point she could decide what her next plan of action was. Still, it had been worth a try to get away sooner, even if it had failed miserably.

It was obvious that Reno was disconcerted by her failure to react to his threats. Turks were used to instilling fear wherever necessary, and if she didn’t have a personal connection to the head of the Turks, Ruby _would_ have been afraid. As it was, she didn’t think Reno would actually follow through on any threats to her bodily harm, not least of all because incapacitating her in anyway would make her a bigger burden than she already was latched to his arm.

Reno sat up and glanced at his watch. “Rude will be back soon.”

“How long have we been here?”

“Seven hours or so.” He looked her up and down and wrinkled his nose. “You smell rank.”

“You don’t smell much better,” she retorted. “It’s almost like we’re both covered in stale blood.”

There’s no window in the bathroom. We’ll let you shower and change when Rude gets back.”

“What’s the matter? Don’t think you could handle me on your own, bigshot?”

Reno laughed. “ _You_ couldn’t handle _me_. I think we’ve proven that. But if you’d rather stay cuffed, I’d be happy to help soap you down.”

“Keep dreaming. I’d rather cut off my own arm than let you see me naked.”

He jangled the cuffs. “Go for it.”

She said nothing in response, instead opting to look around the room for anything she might be able to use as a weapon if she could get her hands on it.

Reno followed her gaze. “Keep dreaming, Rubes. I’m not letting you get out of these chains. I stand to get a raise from turning you in, and if I show up to Junon without you I’m going to get my ass chewed out.”

“As much as that plucks at my heartstrings,” Ruby said. “I’m not really interested in how my freedom might affect you.”

They fell into another uncomfortable silence. The key to the cuffs was in plain sight on the end table, and if she could incapacitate Reno long enough to grab it and uncuff herself, she might stand a chance of getting away. The way she saw it, there were two options: ram her skull against his and then reach for the key, or try to seduce him to draw his attention away, then slam his head into the end table. 

Bashing their heads together would potentially daze her, and Reno seemed like the kind of guy who wasn’t too choosy about his bedmates, so she knew the second option was the better route. If only the idea weren’t so entirely revolting. She also wasn’t entirely confident in her power of seduction, considering men had never exactly fallen over themselves to be with her. It had to be worth a try, though.

“Is it warm in here?” She asked, pulled at her suit jacket and trying to shrug it off, but unable to due to the handcuffs tying her to Reno. She wasn’t completely feigning her warmth either - her decision to follow through with her plan had caused her to break out in a nervous sweat.

Reno observed her, his eyebrows knitting together. “It’s not hot in here, but feel free to strip down if you’re too warm.”

_Gods_ but he was horrible. Ruby hesitated for a moment. Was this really worth it? If she just stayed with the Turks, they would drag her through the Midgar swamp, through the mythril caves, on past Fort Condor, hundreds of miles away to wind around to Junon. That would be days and days stuck in the truck, connected by the wrist to this horrible human being, at the mercy of his lecherous looks and crude comments.

It was _definitely_ worth trying for another break.

Slowly, monitoring her own breathing, Ruby began to unbutton the shirt beneath her jacket, just low enough to reveal the line of her cleavage. She traced a stuttering finger across her collarbone and waited to see if her behavior drew Reno’s attention.

It _did_ , but not quite in the manner she was going for. He observed her with his head cocked to one side, eyes narrowed.

“What exactly are you doing?”

“I’m just hot.” She exhaled loudly. 

His eyes flitted to her cleavage - he made no effort to hide what he was doing - but just as quickly they returned to meet her gaze. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again, a cruel little smile creeping across his face. He settled back against the headboard and said nothing.

Ruby didn’t trust that reaction, but she had decided to follow through on her plan and she was bound and determined to try and make it work. She unbuttoned her shirt a little further, until her bra was showing, then leaned over, exposing a full view down her shirt. Reno watched her, taking in the sight, still silent.

She moved forward in what she had hoped would be a smooth slide onto Reno’s lap, but which instead was a clumsy lurch that resulted in her jamming her knee into the end table before falling back with all her weight onto Reno’s thighs. 

“That looked like it hurt,” he offered. “What was that supposed to be exactly?”

“I’m uh…” Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat, “I thought we might...have a little fun before Rude gets back,” she tiptoed her fingers up his chest, his eyes following the movement, while her free hand slid slowly toward the key on the end table.

She was entirely taken aback when he grabbed her hips and, in one swift movement, pulled her underneath him, pinning her against the bed and holding her arms to her sides.

“A few tips, babe,” he said, his mouth so close to hers she could feel the heat from his breath against her face. “If you’re going to go for a seductive distraction, don’t do it five minutes after saying you’d rather cut off your own arm than let me see you naked. You’re a bad actor, and I may be down for most things, but I’m not a fucking idiot, all right? Also, you should try it when you’re not wearing a frumpy pantsuit stained in blood, cause I gotta tell you, as nice as those tits of yours look, the whole stank you’ve got going on isn’t really doing it for me. But if you wanna follow through and roll around for a little, I’m happy to oblige once you’ve cleaned off.”

Ruby struggled beneath him, his grip surprisingly strong for someone so wiry. 

“You can’t fault me for trying, right?” She said through gritted teeth.

“You need to learn your strengths, Rubes. You’ve got a bad poker face. You were all confidence in the truck. You know why? Cause you weren’t trying to trick me. You weren’t acting - you were all _you_. You’d have been better off spitting in my face and punching me than whatever the hell you just tried to pull.” He rolled off of her and grabbed the key, pocketing it again.

She _hated_ that he was right. She’d always been bad at subterfuge - her entire life had been evidence of that. In a straight fight, she could hold her own: she was a good shot, she could throw a decent punch, and she wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. But when it came to deceit, she was lousy at it and her nerves always got the better of her. _Why_ had she thought her pathetic strip tease would fool a Turk? She shouldn’t have underestimated him.

“What was your plan anyway?” Reno asked, yanking her with him as he stood up and crossed the room to open the curtains. “You uncuff yourself and run? I’m faster than you and Rude is patrolling the town. One of us would have caught you. You might as well resign yourself to your fate. Maybe if you’re extra nice to us we can commute your sentence from an execution to life in prison.”

“That doesn’t sound worth being nice to you.”

“See? There’s that confidence again.” He winked at her and she curled her lip.

With the curtains pulled back, the window of the room allowed a view out onto the town square. Kalm was a quaint town Ruby had visited once or twice before, composed of rows of tidy timber-framed buildings spanning out in a circle from the town square. It was a popular stop-in for people traveling by car to and from Midgar, as well as an affordable vacation destination for Midgar’s middle-class citizens. Directly out the window, the fountain at the center of the square was visible, surrounding a mako pump that provided power to the city.

At midday, the square was bustling with people out shopping and grabbing lunch. The sun was bright overhead, still somewhat muted by the lingering pollution drifting eastward from Midgar, but far brighter than Ruby had seen in ages. For a moment she forget her predicament, enraptured by the light that made the whole town seem more vibrant.

“God I hate being away from Midgar,” Reno grumbled. “Too much sun. I’m going to look like a carrot by the time we get to Junon.”

Before Ruby could respond, footsteps sounded on the stairwell outside the room, and the door swung open to reveal an incredibly haggard-looking Rude. He slumped onto an untouched bed next to the one Reno and Ruby had shared, rubbing his heavy eyelids and sighing.

“Any sign of AVALANCHE?” Reno asked.

“Nothing. They obviously know we’re looking for them. Wherever they are, they’re laying low. And the townspeople here aren’t very fond of Shinra, so none of them were exactly clamoring to talk to me. You two sleep much?”

“Just woke up,” Reno nodded. “You missed a great show. Ruby tried to _seduce me_ to get the key to the cuffs.”

At this Ruby’s face reddened. Rude laughed.

“Surprised you were able to resist her. She’s covered in blood and both of you reek. That didn’t put you in the mood?”

“Speaking of which.” 

Reno fished the key from his pocket and unlocked the cuffs, just as quickly grabbing Ruby around the waist before she could make a run for the door. Resigned after her massive failure to obtain the keys not once, but twice, she let him guide her across the room to a door that led into a cramped bathroom with a shower stall so small she wasn’t sure she’d be able to turn around in it. There was absolutely nothing in the bathroom that would be of use to her in fighting off the Turks, and she was so covered in sweat and grime that the promise of a shower was enough to override her desire for freedom for once.

“Clean up, but don’t take too long. I want to hose off too. Then we’ll sweep the town.” He tossed her the rucksack she’d brought and left the door wide open. She shut it with a huff.

Ruby let the water in the shower heat up while she peeled off her soiled clothes and tossed them in a heap in the corner. She would just as soon burn that pantsuit rather than wear it again, the images of the woman’s head smashing against the wall of the elevator seared in her brain. The blood would never wash out anyway and she’d never been comfortable in dress clothes of any sort.

Stepping into the steaming hot water felt like heaven and for a while she let the scalding water pour over her, reveling in its warmth. When she did finally set about cleaning herself, she scrubbed her skin until it was raw, and washed her hair twice, still not convinced she’d fully cleaned the blood from it. It would have to do though, because ten minutes into her reprieve from the Turks’ overbearing presence, Reno began to pound on the door.

“Hurry the fuck up, princess!”

She continued to take her time until she was afraid Reno might kick down the door to get her out, at which point she shut off the water, toweled off, and dressed in a far more comfortable and utilitarian outfit.

When she finally stepped out of the bathroom, Reno clamped the cuffs back around her wrist and locked the other end around the headboard railing.

“Don’t trust me to wait for you?” Ruby was entirely unsurprised.

“Somehow no.” He looked her up and down. “Nice to see a decent body was hiding under that pantsuit.” He winked and turned away into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

It was going to be an unbearably long trip to Junon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am very hungover and very tired as I'm posting this. Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading and especially for the lovely comments. Reno stans 4 life. More soon!


	9. In Transit

Scouting in Kalm had gone about as poorly as Reno would have anticipated. AVALANCHE had succeeded thus far because they knew what they were up against and they knew how to hide out when necessary. Reno had no doubt that they knew the Turks were out hunting them, and if they had chanced a trip through Kalm, they’d done so very carefully. The suspicion and hostility of the townies only added to the difficulty in rooting out the terrorist group. 

A few hours chained to Ruby hunting for AVALANCHE was enough to last Reno a lifetime. He didn’t know what to do with a hostage who wasn’t afraid of him - every threat he gave her was met with indifference, and she went out of her way to make it difficult for him to do any sort of reconnaissance with her loud mouth. Her attempts to retrieve the key in the hotel room had been laughable at best, but years working as a Turk had taught Reno never to underestimate anyone. Beneath the clumsy nervousness that betrayed Ruby every time she tried to be deceptive, he could see a steely, confident determination. He wouldn’t dare give her even an inch, because she would certainly take a mile in retaliation.

So she stayed chained to his arm during their entire stay in Kalm, through another night in the inn during which she ‘accidentally’ kicked him in her sleep multiple times. 

The morning after their arrival, they departed, following reports of a man with a gun grafted to his arm spotted by miners returning to Kalm from the Mythril mines. The likelihood they would intercept AVALANCHE across the vast eastern wilds or the dangerous marshlands to the south was unlikely, but they were headed that route anyway, so it was worth continued vigilance.

Back in the truck, the air conditioning had kicked out, so they traveled with the windows rolled down, the wind whipping their hair and rippling across the tall grass as the forest gave way to plains. Ruby, it seemed, had given up being obstinate for the moment in favor of savoring the fresh air, which had tousled Reno’s hair into a wiry ball of static. 

Ruby propped her feet up on the dash and Reno observed her body while she wasn’t looking. Dressed down in simple clothing which neither clung to nor hung from her frame, it was easier to see the shape of her curves. She still could have used some cleaning up, but her body wasn’t half bad, and Reno nearly always found feisty women more attractive. It was too bad she wasn’t the type of hostage who was down to trade a little favor for freedom, not that Reno could afford to lose her for such a foolish reason - it didn’t matter, she never would have gone for it. 

As his eyes reached her breasts, she turned her head to face him, eyes narrowing instantly as she noticed his gaze. 

“Can I help you?” She growled. 

Reno shrugged and leaned back against his seat. “Can’t blame a guy for looking.”

“Interesting how Rude’s kept his eyes to himself this entire time, but you seem incapable.”

“Rude’s just better at hiding his glances.  Aren’t you, Rude?”

In response, Rude grunted unhappily and, though his eyes were shaded by sunglasses, Reno was sure he was rolling them. 

“You seem like the kind of guy who has to resort to the Honeybee Inn to get his rocks off, because no one in their right mind would touch you with a ten foot pole,” Ruby quipped. 

It was true enough that outside the brothel in sector 6, slum dwellers weren’t keen on getting in to bed with a Turk unless it could net them some sort of gain, but above the plate Reno did all right; he rarely had the time for an actual conquest though. 

“You think you’ve got me all pegged, don’t you? Like you’re so great for running around beneath the plate playing pretend at being an eco-terrorist while the real rebels upstage you.”

For the first time, something Reno said had struck a nerve. Ruby’s reaction was visible and immediate. Her face fell, if only for a moment, but Reno noticed it all the same. She recovered quickly, scowling and rolling her eyes. 

“I just have a different philosophy on my approach,” she argued. “I understand where AVALANCHE is coming from and I respect their tenacity, but I’m not part of their group for a reason.”

“Whatever excuses you need to make, Rubes.”

“You never said I was wrong about the Honeybee Inn, you know.” She diverted the subject back to Reno. 

He shrugged. “I go there sometimes. I’m a busy guy. Doesn’t mean it’s the only bed I’ve been in. All the places we get sent on assignment, I’ve slept with women from Wutai to Icicle Inn.” It was both true and untrue. 

Reno had had his fair share of sexual encounters, but his line of work and his busy schedule meant that he wasn’t quite as prolific as he claimed. 

“So many disappointed women, all around the world.” Ruby chuckled. 

“Nah.” Reno leaned in close to her, placing one hand strategically on her knee and letting his fingers gently brush the inside of her lower thigh. “I’m a man of many talents, Rubes.” He heard her breath catch as he continued, his fingers tiptoeing along her leg. “It’s no fun unless both of us-“

She smacked his hand away and he leaned back with a grin, pleased at how red her face had become. 

“Gods, Rubes, you’re so riled up, you’d think you’d never been laid before.”

“I don’t go around bragging about every person I’ve ever slept with,” she growled. 

“What’s your number, huh? Personally I lost track of mine.” He hadn’t, and knew that he had slept with exactly thirty-two women and three men. 

“You’re a pig.”

He ignored her. “What about you, Rude?”

Rude grunted and said nothing. 

“Rude doesn’t get around much,” Reno explained. “I’d peg his number as five or less. He’s all about ‘emotional connection’. As if we have time for that.”

“That another way the Turks get information?” Ruby’s face was creased into an angry frown. 

Reno balked. “Look we might maim and torture but our organization draws a hard fucking line at sexual assault, thank you very much.”

“Oh excuse me for not realizing a bunch of murdering spies have some skewed set of morals.” Ruby rolled her eyes. 

“Well I take offense! Don’t you, Rude?”

Rude glanced at them and gave a small nod and shrug. “We do have some morals.”

“Ask any Turk and they’ll agree,” Reno said. “Offensive, really.”

“Quit acting like it was an out of bounds accusation!”

For a moment they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Growing up in the slums, Reno had been witness to his share of violent crimes, including that particular brand of assault, but even as his career aspirations led him to join the Turks, that had been one line he refused to ever cross. He’d had his ass kicked as a kid and adult on more than one occasion for intervening in such affairs. Certainly he couldn’t expect a civilian to understand how a group as seemingly depraved and insidious as the Turks would have internal guidelines, but Tseng ran a tight ship with rigid rules and an overbearing sense of morality attached to murder and torture. 

After enough time had passed, Reno broke the silence first. 

“Seriously though, Rubes. What’s your number?”

“Fuck off.”

“I guess three. No maybe four. No wait that’s too high. Three, definitely three.”

She gave him a withering look and said nothing. 

He grinned. “I could make it four for you.”

“Not if you were the last man on Gaia.”

“Oh maybe I pegged you wrong, huh? Not into men? That’s fine. I respect that.”

“I don’t have a preference,” she corrected him. “It’s Turks I won’t sleep with.”

“I’ll keep that in mind if I ever make a career change.”

“All you could do was tell me how frumpy I looked earlier. Why the change of heart? Sorry,” she held a hand up, “I’d imagine it’s your groin doing the thinking here.”

“I’ll admit you could use some work.” He tugged at her ponytail in an attempt to undo it, but she swatted his hand away. “Let your hair down, fix your roots...or better yet just let that blonde come back in. This hideous boxed red is doing nothing for you, babe. The change of clothes at least helps.”

“Thanks for the input,” she tightened her ponytail. 

Rude let out a sigh. “Another four days of your bickering is going to kill me.”

“Next stop we make, how about the three of us get naked and really get to know each other?” Reno suggested. “By the time we get to Junon no one will be arguing about anything!”

Rude grunted in irritation and Ruby rolled her eyes yet again. Reno shrugged and rested his arm on the windowsill, watching the lush countryside fly by as they drove. 

All this fucking nature. That was the real nightmare. He lit up a cigarette, if only to get the fresh air out of his mouth, puffing on it slowly and allowing his eyes to drift closed. Four more days, give or take complications, and he would be rid of this obnoxious weight chained to his arm. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lapse in updates. It's been a busy couple of months. But I'm hoping to have another chapter fairly soon to make up for it. I'm counting down the days to the remake and dreaming of the hopeful revival of the fandom. More soon!


	10. Born of Marsh and Mako

All things considered, Ruby couldn’t complain too much about her journey with the Turks thus far. Reno was obnoxious, to be sure, but she could go toe-to-toe with him in an argument easily. Rude, meanwhile, was the strong silent type, only speaking when it served a purpose, which was in direct opposition to Reno’s own apparent manifesto of talking about anything and everything all the time and for no reason. Still, of all the Turks she could have been chained to while she waited her freedom in Junon, they weren’t so bad.

Another day’s drive from Kalm led them to the edge of the Midgar Marsh where they stopped for the night at a quaint chocobo farm twenty miles north of the marsh. The farmer and his wife bred chocobos for Shinra’s amusement park - the same amusement park that had led to the destruction of Corel years earlier. It was a bright, shiny distraction meant to help people forget how the residents of Corel - already the poor working class - had been displaced to make way for a money maker. 

But Ruby couldn’t fault the poor farmers and their children for Shinra’s transgressions. They were poor working folk themselves, just trying to make a living out in the country, miles from any civilization. 

When the Turks came knocking, the farmer didn’t seem too pleased at their arrival, casting a pointed look at the handcuffs that bound Ruby to Reno, but he was well-versed in Shinra politics, and knew that his livelihood could rest on allowing the Turks to spend the night, so, lacking any spare bedrooms in the modest farmhouse, the farmer set Ruby and the Turks up in the barn. Sheets cast over piles of hay and greens meant to feed the birds (the loud, smelly creatures that took up the rest of the barn) were their beds, and for the third night in a row Ruby found herself forced to sleep in an uncomfortable and awkward position next to Reno.

“This is the fucking pits,” Reno protested as they lay down for the night. “Can’t we just take shifts going through the marsh and camp out once we hit the Mythril caves?”

Rude shook his head. “You ever driven through that Marsh, Reno?”

“Of course I fucking haven’t. Outside of perimeter patrols I usually take the damn helicopter if I need to go somewhere.”

“Well the marsh isn’t safe,” Rude said. “We need to be alert and ready for anything tomorrow. It’s certainly not the kind of place I’d drive through at night. You can barely see the road during the day; at night you’re likely to run straight into the swamp and sink the entire truck.”

Reno grumbled wordlessly, beating the hay beneath him into a shape resembling a pillow, which jarred Ruby’s arm with each smack.

“This place reeks. It’s drafty and cold. And the chocobos are noisy as hell. If I wanted this experience I’d spend a night at the tracks in the Gold Saucer. At least there I could make some money.”

“Too much time in the lap of luxury, huh? Or have you always been this spoiled?” Ruby asked. 

She wasn’t going to vocalize that she agreed with Reno’s sentiments, and that sleeping in the bed of the truck seemed preferable to this barn. She knew Rude was right about trekking through the marsh, though. The swampland famously served as a dumping ground for Shinra’s industrial waste, which meant massive amounts of mako were pumped all the way from Midgar into the muddy waters of the marsh. Mako was dangerous to any living thing - used to produce profound strengthening effects in SOLDIERS. In the creatures that lived in the marsh, it had produced mutation, with the strongest beasts proliferating into monsters. It was the reason the Turks had equipped Ruby with materia at all.

“Yeah, excuse me,” Reno tugged some of their shared blanket toward him. “Sorry I grew up in the slums digging through the trash for food and sleeping in junkyards, so now that I have money and influence, I’d rather not spend my nights in a barn full of chocobos. What do you know about it?” He looked her up and down. “I’d peg you for an upper-cruster any day. You moved down to the slums to make a difference, or whatever you want to tell yourself, but I’d bet good money you weren’t always bad off.”

Ruby bristled, not least of all because he wasn’t so far off the mark. 

“Where I came from hardly matters. I’ve been through my share of shit, thanks. I was there when Shinra came through Corel and destroyed everything, so I think-”

“Cry me a fucking river,” Reno groaned. “Of course where you came from matters.”

“Would you both shut up?” Rude flicked off the barn light and settled into his own bed. “Go to sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

It took a long time for sleep to find Ruby, and when it did, it was fitful. The nights since the Turks had dragged her from Midgar had been filled with dreams of what she and Reno had seen on the elevator, of the president of Shinra slumped over his desk, of a man with flowing silver hair and a masamune. That night was no exception, but the SOLDIER she dreamed of gradually morphed into someone else, the familiar outline of Shinra’s new leader - Rufus Shinra - only glimpsing him from behind as he stared out over a sea of fire.

She awoke with a start to immediate discomfort. The barn _was_ cold and drafty, and the farmers hadn’t had much in the way of bedding (that, or they were intentionally holding out as a small means of protest against the Turks’ presence). Either way, Ruby’s body was aching from the cold. In Midgar, even at night, a damp heat permeated the air, but out on the plains in the arid countryside, the night chill was intense.

The only solution with handcuffs limiting her range was to huddle closer to Reno, who was visibly shivering in his sleep. The thought was unappealing, but not as much as freezing her ass off for the rest of the night. So, reluctantly, she sidled across the short distance separating them and curled against the warmth of Reno’s wiry body. Almost instantly his arms wrapped around her. 

“Couldn’t resist me, huh?” he whispered, though his eyes were still closed and his words moved with the lazy cadence of fatigue.

“Careful, I’m in range of a lot of delicate parts right now,” she reminded him.

“Look, Rubes,” he yawned, “just admit you want me.”

“Gods, you’re the fucking worst.”

But it was remarkably warmer huddled together than it had been apart. Reno started to respond to her comment, but his words trailed off as he fell back into a light slumber. It had been a long time since Ruby had spent the night in anyone’s arms and she’d forgotten how comforting simple physical touch could be.

If only it had been almost anyone else on the entire planet.

When she fell back asleep, she dreamed of old friends in place of her nightmares, of a time before Corel. 

She dreamed of family.

* * *

Reno awoke to Ruby’s body pressed hard against his, no longer shivering as some of the cold left the air with the morning sun. For a moment he observed his hostage with pure, unabashed desire. He wanted to have sex with her and he would have readily admitted it, not that his standards for who he would or wouldn’t sleep with were very high. Usually when he woke up with a woman pressed against him, sex was foremost on his mind; Ruby’s breasts mashed against his chest weren’t helping the matter.

Ruby had made her distaste for Shinra abundantly clear, so there was no pursuing that line of thinking. A different hostage might have agreed to it - a last chance before their punishment or else a chance to tick down that death sentence to an extended stay in prison, but Ruby was not that kind of hostage. So Reno simply savored the feeling of a warm body pressed against his until she inevitably woke and put as much distance between them as her cuffs would allow. There were certainly better looking women -Shinra sympathizers even - that Reno could scope out in Junon.

It didn’t take long for Ruby to wake and, as Reno had predicted, she quickly shuffled away from him, her face flushing with embarrassment.

“Oh fucking relax,” he groaned. “It’s not like you yanked me off in your sleep. We were cold and we shared some heat. Calm down.”

She said nothing in response, instead pulling her hair down comb it with her fingers before tying it back into a tight, unattractive ponytail.

Rude was already awake, so once all three of them were up and around, they ate breakfast with the redneck farmer and his family - an uncomfortable moment filled with stony looks from the family, who clearly weren’t pleased by the Turks’ presence - before piling into the truck and heading out into the Midgar Marsh.

The marsh stretched on for miles, surrounded on three sides by mountains. Through the southern peaks, a network of caves rich in Mythril ran deep and wide, with tunnels hewn into the mountains for the miners. Through traffic was rare because it meant passing through the marsh, something most civilians weren’t equipped for.

Reno had never driven through the marsh before, though he’d flown over it on a number of occasions. The road, if it could be called that, was a muddy path reinforced with wooden logs and surrounded by poorly constructed dams meant to hold back the swamp water from flooding the road. Still, in times of high rain the road was impassable except by chocobo. Crossing the swamp by foot was out of the question - the monsters that mako had created were quick and efficient killing machines - a car might outstrip them, but a human never could.

The truck slowed appreciably as the rough plains gave way to the muddy road through the marsh. Rude had to balance speed with energy - too much power too quick and they might run out of mako before they made it through the mythril caves.

“God this place is bleak,” Ruby noted. “Even the sky is greyer here.”

“It’s all that mako,” Reno gestured widely out the window. “Creates some sort of weather loop between the swamp water and the clouds.”

“You’re making that up.”

He shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I heard.”

“Who the hell told you that? A scientist?” Ruby rolled her eyes.

“No, but he wasn’t an idiot!”

“Well it sounds fake to me.”

“Would you two _please_ shut up?” Rude begged.

“C’mon man, aren’t you used to it by now?” Reno laughed. “Why don’t you join in? It’s no fun being the _only_ one she wants to argue with.”

“I don’t _want_ to argue with you,” Ruby protested. “You just make it impossible not to.”

“Well I didn’t see you arguing when you were cozying up to me last night.”

At this, Ruby’s face grew red again and she stared ahead out the window to avoid Reno’s gaze. He chuckled and leaned his head against the passenger window.

“You two looked downright cozy this morning,” Rude said. “I guess it’s true what they say.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” Reno asked.

“There’s a fine line between love and hate.”

“Ah, fuck off.”

They were silent for a while after that, possibly Rude’s intention all along. Every once in a while, Reno would glance over to Ruby, whose jacket was unzipped just low enough that he could glimpse her cleavage from the right angle. It was truly desperate times if the biggest titillation of his week was peeking down a woman’s shirt, but that was all he had to go on until they got to Junon. After the fourth time looking down her shirt, she noticed his gaze and quickly zipped her jacket.

Reno had never been fond of silence. Where Rude could have gone days without saying a word to anyone, Reno found it difficult to stay quiet for even a few minutes. This was, admittedly, part of why he and Ruby had been bickering so much during the seemingly endless trip from Midgar. His inability to shut up at all ever meant inevitably the conversation would turn to something that irritated one or both of them, and they would be at each other’s throats. It didn’t stop him from breaking the silence every time.

“So, Rubes. You from Midgar or were you born out in redneck nowhere. Corel, was it?”

She glanced sideways at him. “Why do you care?”

“Oh, forgive me for trying to have some conversation while we putt through this gods-forsaken swamp.”

Ruby softened slightly, an expression he thought even a few days ago she would have been too proud to show. 

“I was born in Midgar.”

“Me too. Rude was born in...where was it, buddy?”

“A little place north of Rocket Town. It’s called Weln.”

“Right. Never been. Rocket Town sure is a shit heap though.” Reno propped his legs up on the dash. “Anyway, like I said, I’d bet money you’re an upper-cruster, huh, Rubes?”

She was quiet for a moment before she answered. “What about me makes you think that?” It was obvious she disliked being so easily pegged, but when you lived in Midgar your entire life, you could peg an upper-cruster easily enough. They just didn’t face the same hardships as slum-dwellers.

“Well, for one, this,” he brushed his fingers across her ponytail and she gave him an annoyed look, but didn’t swat his hand away. “This red shit you put in your hair to hide whoever you really are.” His fingers tiptoed to the blonde roots extending from her scalp. “People in the slums don’t have anything to hide, and if they do they don’t use cheap box dye.”

“So because I dye my hair I’m an upper-cruster?” She asked, exasperated.

“You haven’t once denied that I’m right.” He looked her up and down. “You get nervous lying. Not to say there aren’t upper-crusters who know how to lie through their teeth. Look at Scarlet,” he laughed. “But a slum-dweller...lying’s in our blood. You gotta lie to survive down there.”

“Anything else?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, that gun of yours. Way too fucking nice for a slum-dweller. I know you didn’t buy that from a pawn shop. That’s some kind of keepsake. Whoever you were before you left the upper plate behind, you couldn’t quite shed that last memory, huh?”

She pressed her lips into hard line. “You think you can read people so well.”

“Tell me I’m wrong, Rubes. Go ahead. I’ll wait.” She huffed and said nothing. “That’s what I thought. It’s my job to read people, babe. How else do I get information out of hostages. Don’t worry, I won’t tell your friends in AVALANCHE that you left behind some bougie family to go play pretend terrorist below the plate.”

“I can’t help where I was born.”

“No,” Reno agreed. “But you could have stayed where you had power and influence and made a _real_ difference instead of pretending to slum it while always knowing you have a safety net if you fuck up beyond repair. Is that what you’ll do in Junon? Hm? Call in a favor with the family to avoid the gas chamber?”

“My parents are dead,” Ruby replied flatly.

Reno had at least enough sense to feel a little ashamed for his prodding.

“Oh...I’m sorry.”

“Whatever.” She shrugged. “We had a...strained relationship.”

“No siblings or-?”

“I haven’t spoken to any of my family in ten years, so it doesn’t really matter. Look, I know someone like you could never see me as anything but what I was born into, but this is who I am now. I don’t know the girl who left that family ten years ago.”

Reno was about to respond when a thunderous boom shook the truck. Rude struggled to right its path and keep the truck steady on the road as Reno and Ruby looked all around them searching for a source of the impact.

“What the hell was that?” Reno asked.

“Holy shit…” Ruby had turned as much as she could with her arm chained to Reno’s, looking directly out the back window behind them.

Further back on the road, but gaining on them quickly, was the most massive snake Reno had ever set eyes on. It slithered forward before pounding its head to the ground, rocking the truck with another clap of thunder as it did so before righting itself and continuing its chase.

Legends prevailed across the northern half of the eastern continent regarding a creature known as the Midgar Zolom, but Reno had never believed them. Did the Midgar Marsh give rise to horrible mako abominations that had killed countless travelers? Sure. But a gigantic poisonous snake capable of swallowing a helicopter whole? He had always doubted the veracity of such a claim.

Now he was staring down the creature with his own two eyes as it gained on them. Even from this distance he could see the ferocity in the creature’s enormous, gleaming red eyes, the dull glow of mako reflecting off of its onyx-black scales.

“Floor it man, floor it!” Reno yelled.

Rude glanced in the rear-view mirror and his eyebrows rose at the sight of the monster chasing them. He slammed his foot onto the gas, but somehow the snake kept pace with them, its sights locked on them for whatever reason. They had clearly somehow disturbed its habitat and now they were going to pay the price.

“Uncuff me,” Ruby said, raising her cuffed wrist.

“Yeah, okay.” Reno rolled his eyes.

“What the fuck am I gonna do here, Reno? Run? Headlong into more mako monsters in the swamp? Or straight into that _thing’s_ mouth? If you uncuff me I can fight it, but if you leave us chained together then we’re both going to fucking die!”

“I gotta say, I like her logic, Reno.” Sweat was trickling down Rude’s shiny bald head.

“Uh...yeah, okay.” 

Reno dug around in his pocket for the key, periodically glancing back at the ever-approaching zolom. His hand made contact with the key and he fished it out, struggling to fit it in the lock. Ruby’s hand clasped over top of his and took the key, sliding it into the lock and freeing them both from their binds.

Almost as soon as she was free, Ruby threw open the back window and scrambled into the bed of the truck, digging through her rucksack until she found her pistol. She opened the chamber only to find it empty, then turned to Reno with a fire in her eyes.

“Where’s my fucking ammo, Reno?” 

“Shit.” He’d taken it just in case she managed to get her hands on the gun. Grabbing his own bag, he climbed out after her and dug around until he found the clips she needed. “You better be a good shot,” he told her.

“Or what?” She loaded the gun. “Our lives are on the line here.”

Reno checked to make sure his own pistol was loaded, but as he raised it to aim at the snake, which was now only a few hundred yards behind them, he found his arms were not as steady as he would have liked them to be.

Glancing sideways at him, Ruby let out a small laugh despite the situation. “Who’s nervous now?” Her arms were shockingly still, moving only with each bounce of the truck along the muddy path.

“Your arms were shaking pretty bad when I found you in that elevator,” he reminded her.

“That was a totally different state of mind.”

“Oh, what, you’re used to running into giant mutant snakes?” He fired off a shot and missed. The snake slammed its head down, shaking the truck once again.

“I’m used to fighting in high stakes situations where I’m not the only target. You know, rebel stuff.” She lined up a shot and struck the snake below the jaw, but it seemed to have little impact. “I’m not saying my heart isn’t going a thousand miles a minute right now, but there’s no unknowns in this situation. Either we kill this thing and escape or we die.”

“You’re something else, you know that, Rubes?”

She said nothing in response, lining up another shot and hitting the snake in its midsection, again with little effect.

“Where the hell did you learn to shoot?” he asked.

“My bougie family.” She chanced a glance at him before firing again, but the third shot missed.

They took turns firing on the snake, Reno missing far more frequently than Ruby did, though the snake sometimes threw them both off by slamming its head against the ground. In Reno’s defense, he had done the bare minimum firearm training required of a Turk. His stun rod was his weapon of choice, coupled with some street fighting skills he’d picked up as a slum-dweller. But melee fighting with a snake the size of a jet plane didn’t sound ideal.

“What are you two doing back there!?” Rude yelled. “It’s still chasing us!”

“This thing is made of steel, man, I don’t know what to tell you,” Reno huffed. “We’ve shot it at least a dozen times and it doesn’t seem fazed. Can’t you make this damn thing go any faster?”

“I’ve got the pedal to the floor!”

The snake lurched suddenly, slamming its tail into the rotting wood damming the water on the sides of the road. All at once the mako-infested water, glowing a soft blue, came surging forward, surrounding the sides of the truck and nearly sweeping it completely off of the road. The only thing that saved them was the fact that it was a dry season, and the waters in the swamp were low - even as the road flooded, Rude was able to push the truck further along the road, although they were now slowed considerably by the resistance.

“Fuck, that’s not good.” Reno and Ruby backed against the truck cab.

With a final push, the zolom surged forward and slammed its head into the truck, clamping its enormous fangs into the bed and pulling away with the back door, which it tossed to the side before pushing after them again.

The beast’s entire head was as large as the truck, and its fang was nearly as long as Reno was tall, razor sharp and dripping with visible venom. It reared for another attack and Ruby fired off a shot, landing a bullet squarely between the eyes of the monster. Its only response was to shake its head and snarl - if anything, the shot seemed to have angered the creature.

Reno got off two rounds beneath the snake’s jaw, and Ruby landed another into its open mouth just as it moved to slam its head down against the bed of the truck once more. They were pressed as far back in the bed as they could go, with no way to escape the oncoming attack. Reno rolled flat against the side in a desperate bid to avoid the snake’s dripping white fangs. A gunshot fired, Ruby let out a wailing gasp, and the creature fell back, one eye turned to a bloody pulp.

“That was a fucking amazing shot, Rubes, you-” 

He turned to find Ruby sprawled out across the bed of the truck with a crimson bloodstain blossoming on her shoulder. She lay clutching the wound weakly, her other hand limp against her pistol. Reno’s stomach lurched unexpectedly at the sight.

“Venom…” Ruby choked, smacking her hand against her wound. “Venom.”

Reno sprang into action. He pulled Ruby’s jacket off, tossing it to the side before ripping her shirt in half to get at the sizeable puncture wound running through her shoulder. Blood and muscle were visible immediately, mixed with the glowing hue of the snake’s venom. Quickly activating his materia, Reno pressed his hand against her shoulder and watched as a warm green glow shot from his wrist into the oozing wound, sucking out the venom, but doing little else for the blood steadily seeping across her chest and arm.

“Hold on, Rubes.”

Her breathing was labored, her eyelids fluttering as she clutched insistently at his arm.

“Snake,” she gasped, pointing behind them. “Reno!”

He whipped around in time to see the snake aiming another attack for the bed of the truck. Blinded in one eye, its depth perception had been thrown off and when it reared its head toward Reno, it slammed slightly right of the truck, shaking the ground, but missing its mark. Thinking quickly, Reno pulled his stun-rod from his hip and extended it into the water surrounding them and flipping the switch to activate it.

Instantaneously, a surge of electricity shot from the stun-rod, rippling through the water - the conduction quite possibly strengthened by the wealth of mako flowing through it. The current spared the truck, grounded by rubber tires, but not the snake, which was still writhing through the water after them. The zolom began to convulse as the electricity hit it, blood spurting from the bullet wounds Reno and Ruby had left behind before it slid below the surface of the water and fell still.

Reno wasn’t stupid enough to think he had killed the creature, but he had least incapacitated it, buying them time to escape to the Mythril caves before it recovered. A wheezing gasp reminded him that Ruby was still in dire need of help. He launched himself back to her side and slid his bangle around searching for his cure materia. Ruby was growing paler as blood seeped from her wound, her breath ragged, her hand pawing weakly at her shoulder.

“Stop messing with it,” Reno barked, pulling her hand away and pressing his own against the wound to help stabilize it. The cure materia wouldn’t completely patch up an injury that large, but it would at least stem the blood-flow and stabilize her until they could find a doctor on the other side of the mines.

Ruby let her hand fall against his arm, her fingers moving slowly and purposelessly against the fabric of his suit jacket.

“Reno…”

“Shut up. You’re gonna be fine.” His hands were stained with her blood.

“What’s going on?” Rude glanced back at them, saw Ruby’s wound, and let out a startled huff. “What the fuck?”

“The snake, man. It’s fine, it’s fine. This materia stopped the bleeding.” 

When Reno removed his hand, the sight of the partially healed wound wasn’t much more palatable than the initial injury. A shallow, puckered, blood-stained hole remained in Ruby’s shoulder - it would require stitches to fully close.

“You still with us, Rubes?” Reno asked, lifting her and pulling her into the cab of the truck with some difficulty.

Her eyelids fluttered, her head slumping against Reno’s shoulder. She opened her mouth, but no words escaped.

“Saving the hostage, huh?” Rude asked.

“Was I supposed to let her bleed out?”

Rude shrugged. “They’re probably gonna kill her in Junon anyway. What difference would it make?”

“Like you wouldn’t have done the same.” Reno rolled his eyes.

“I would have,” Rude agreed. “But I’m a little surprised is all. You seem...genuinely concerned about her.”

“Ah, don’t read into it.” Reno waved his hand dismissively. “As soon as we get to Junon, I’m dumping her on Rufus’ doorstep and moving on with my life.”

Rude chuckled and said nothing more. Reno certainly wasn’t going to admit that he _had_ been concerned when he saw the blood blossoming on Ruby’s shirt. Hell, if she hadn’t shot the snake in the eye, they’d likely all be dead, so he was just looking out for someone who had saved his life, wasn’t he? He was making sure he didn’t owe her when the time came to turn her over to his boss. 

That’s what he settled on as she fell, half naked and unconscious against him. He didn’t like owing anyone. _Least of all_ obnoxious rebel terrorists.

Even if they did have _great_ tits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite chapters write initially and I really enjoyed re-writing it. I just love getting into the group dynamic and this is a good tipping point for everyone maybe warming up to each other a little bit. Although we're still a few months out from the remake I want to say I'm going to continue posting this in line with the original plot (though who knows what new fics the remake might inspire??) More soon and thank you to everyone who's been reading!


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